


Love is a Burning Thing

by knave_of_swords



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Begging, Biting, Blow Jobs, Catholic Guilt, Choking, Cunnilingus, Dom/sub, Enemies With Benefits, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Hate-Fucking, Masturbation, Mildly Dubious Consent, Rough Sex, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, Smut, Step-Sibling Incest, Unrealistically fast processing and discarding of Catholic Guilt, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Violent Sex, sexual masochist Edelgard, sexual sadist Dimitri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:28:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22995484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knave_of_swords/pseuds/knave_of_swords
Summary: When simmering sexual tension boils over into an unanticipated hook-up, Dimitri Blaiddyd and Edelgard Hresvelg find their beliefs about each other shattered. Slowly, what had been an antagonistic rivalry between the two becomes something else as they find themselves irresistibly drawn back to each other again and again.AKA: the aggressively horny psuedo slow burn modern au that I can't stop thinking about.Update 11/16/20: I have decided to end this fic prematurely, marking it as finished earlier than I had planned in my initial outline. More details in the beginning and ending author's notes.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Edelgard von Hresvelg
Comments: 49
Kudos: 173





	1. Spark

**Author's Note:**

> Update 11/16/20: I have decided to discontinue writing this fic, ending it earlier than my initial outline had planned. It was difficult to try and continue to write this fic after the emotional climax in chapter 5, so I took a break. Now, eight months later, I have come to the conclusion that I no longer feel capable of continuing to write this fic with consistent characterization, even if I did feel a strong desire to continue writing it (which I do not).
> 
> (a few more details in the author's note at the end of chapter 5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dimitri POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on some of the tags that apply to this chapter:
> 
>  **Mildly Dubious Consent:** As a fantasy during masturbation. This also applies to future chapters where explicit consent is not outright stated but both parties are enthusiastically participating in and enjoying the sex throughout the act. Given how rough some of that sex will be, I felt this would be appropriate to warn for.
> 
>  **Step-Sibling Incest:** For those of you who care whether or not incestuous step siblings grew up together or not, no, in this AU they did not. They were aware of the other's existence but never had the chance to really consider each other as siblings.
> 
>  **Catholic Guilt:** Good old fashioned feeling ashamed for having a sex drive. Thanks [insert religion of your choice]. I don't intend to go too deep with this, as to delve super deep into it feels like it would take away from my main focus on the romance/smut, but it's here, especially in the beginning. Though I also plan on it being worked through pretty quickly and positively.
> 
> Future chapters will also have a beginning note like this to note if there's any specific content warnings that that chapter merits.

Dimitri lets out a low groan as he strokes his cock with his right hand, slowly moving up and down his shaft. His left hand is holding his phone, with a low resolution porn video silently playing. The woman is being treated roughly, like she's just a human fleshlight for the man, as he holds her hips and slides her back and forth on his cock. Dimitri's so close. He can feel it. He hates it. Hates that something like _this_ is arousing him. 

He bites his lip and tries to think of something else, to distract him until he gets his release. Edelgard's infuriating face flashes through his mind. Fuck, no, not her. Something else. _Dominating Edelgard like the woman the video. Forcing her to submit to him. Using her cunt to get off._ Fuck, he's almost there. He tries to look back at the video. It's no use, he can't chase the idea of Edelgard underneath him out of his head. How she would feel on his cock. How satisfying it would be to force her to beg for release as he fucked her senseless. 

It's that last thought that finally tips him over the edge, cum spurting out of his cock onto his bare chest. He slows the pumping of his hand, until the last waves of his orgasm float away. His breathing is still ragged. He pulls his phone towards him, moving to exit out of the video he had been watching. _This is really horrible_ , he thought. _What kind of scum gets aroused watching women get hurt?_ He knows what kind of scum. Scum like him. It was bad enough that he masturbated. He tried not to, but the longest he found he could hold out was a week. 

This had become a daily ritual, of sorts, for him. Watch porn. Jerk off. Hate himself afterwards. Especially on days like today, when the thought of one of his classmates entered his mind unbidden. He grimaced. Edelgard of all the girls. Of all the girls at Garreg Mach Catholic Academy to fantasize about, he just had to think of the one who aggravated him the most. Who was also technically his step-sister. Dimitri isn't sure which of those is worse for this scenario. 

_Enough self-loathing for now,_ he thought. Class was going to start soon, and he needed to get breakfast before the dining hall closed. He sat up, wiping the cum off of his chest with a dirty t-shirt from the laundry hamper underneath his bed. He pulled on his white dress shirt, and then his boxers and slacks, threading his belt through his pant-loops as he dug his feet into his shoes, before hopping out the door, trying to tie his laces as he walked down the hall.

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He's able to put his earlier jerk-session out of his mind for most of his morning classes, but his efforts prove to ultimately have been pointless when P.E. class arrives. Coach Shamir tells them to divide into two teams for a soccer game, and naturally, the class splits along house lines- the Black Eagles vs the Blue Lions. And there Edelgard is, her long, pale hair tied up in a high ponytail, in shorts that showed off an unfair amount of her legs.

He already knows that she's going to be the biggest threat on the field against them, as a star member of the Academy's girls' soccer team. He knew he had a physical advantage over her in muscle and height, but he was on her turf- figuratively and literally. As a lacrosse player, he was less used to the tight footwork that would let Edelgard steal the ball out from under him on the soccer field.

Hs initial assessment proved correct, as he and Edelgard clashed over and over on the field. He'd get the ball, run with it for a good distance, and then she would dart in and steal it from him, expertly passing it back down the field towards his team's goal. She's always there, her legs seeming to taunt him with how good they looked in her almost-too-tight shorts. He's relieved when Shamir calls for a short break midway through, the score having stayed at 1-1 after Bernadetta's lucky kick scored a point, and he had managed to pass the ball to Dedue to score before Edelgard stole the ball back from him.

He chugs water, letting it run down his face and chest freely. It isn't until he goes to put his water bottle back that he sees her again, talking animatedly with Petra and Caspar, probably scheming for how they'd take the second half of the scrimmage. Damn, he should probably pull some of his team aside to try and plan something. He fumes, knowing he didn't actually know many soccer strategies. She was going to best him again. 

He's still glowering at her when it happens. She's still in the middle of talking with her teammates, when she lifts up the bottom of her shirt to wipe the sweat off her forehead. Dimitri can feel his mouth go dry, all the water he had just chugged seeming to evaporate out of his system. He can see her well defined abs, the bright purple strip of her sports bra that was briefly visible for a moment. Fuck. Of course she had to make this even harder for him than it already was. He turns around to go back to his water bottle, but Coach Shamir starts blowing her whistle and motioning for the students to get back on the field. Dimitri groaned. The second half of the game was going to be hell for him.

Somehow, though, he managed to keep Edelgard away from their goal for most of the second half. He gives up on trying to score, instead devoting himself to getting in Edelgard's way. A smug smile finds its way on his lips when he can tell that it's working from the way Edelgard is glaring at him. Good. Her shorts still taunt him, and he keeps imagining tearing those shorts off of her, but his irritation wins this time as he doesn't let anything distract him from blocking Edelgard. 

The game is close to ending, he knows, when Edelgard makes a desperate bid for the ball between his legs. He moves to stop her, but gets he places his foot wrong and moves too fast. Before Dimitri realizes it, he's on top of Edelgard on the grass. He freezes when he hears her gasp in pain. She was the first to hit the ground, she must have cushioned his fall with her body. He wants to move away, apologize, help Edelgard up, but that gasp she had let out coupled with him being pretty much on top of her- he could feel himself start to get hard. Fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck. 

He tries to shift slightly away, hoping she doesn't notice. But when she groans, he realizes that he's kneed her in the groin in his attempt to shift away. And she can probably definitely feel his partial erection against her inner thigh. Fuck. He has to get away, now, before he makes this whole situation even worse for himself. He leaps off of her, desperately willing his boner to go away. as he reaches for her hand to pull her up. 

"Sorry," he grunts, not trusting himself to say more.

"It's fine," Edelgard replies. "But Coach is coming over so you should probably...fix that."

He twists his head around and sees Shamir jogging towards them. Fuck, and his erection still hasn't gone away. He whips his head back towards Edelgard who gives him a pointed look at his crotch. He can feel his face flushing as he quickly adjusts himself, strapping his cock against his body with the elastic waistband of his gym shorts and tugging his shirt over it. 

"You guys know the rules about fouls. This never should have happened, Dimitri," she says with a mildly irritated tone.

"It was an accident, Coach," comes Edelgard's surprising reply. "Neither of us are at fault." Shamir tilts her head, frowning at Edelgard.

Dimitri blinks as he processes what Edelgard said. It had definitely been his fault. And he had gotten an erection, fuck, was she going to report him? She had every reason to. Or if not report it, find a way to humiliate him among their classmates for it.

"Are either of you hurt? It looked like a nasty fall." Luckily, Shamir seems to believe Edelgard, or at least not want to challenge her declaration. 

Guilt floods Dimitri's mind as he remembers the gasp Edelgard had let out when they first fell, and then when he had gotten up. She had definitely gotten hurt because of the fall he had caused. Yet, to his increasing surprise, Edelgard shakes her head.

"I'm fine," she says. "Are we going to finish the game?" Dimitri opens his mouth to protest, knowing Edelgard was lying. But the glare she shot him as she saw him move to speak had him close his mouth again. If she wanted to insist that she was fine, then fine. She probably thought he wanted to gloat that she was injured and she wasn't. So damn stubborn, hiding her pain to prevent a one-up that only she saw that way. He wasn't that petty, no matter how irritating she was to him. 

Shamir shakes her head. "No, now is as good a time as any to end the game. There was only a minute left on my clock anyways." She turns around, calling for the other students to head back to the locker rooms. Dimitri hears them erupt into protests, demanding at least a penalty kick off to decide the score.

"You kids are too damn competitive with each other," he hears Shamir yell at them. "It's a tie. Get over it." 

As he walks back over to his team, he can tell that none of them are happy about the forced tie. But Shamir was notoriously firm once she had made a decision, and they all knew by now that protesting further would only earn them push-ups as a punishment.

"You okay, D?" Sylvain asks him with a clap on the shoulder.

"Fine," Dimitri replies. "Edelgard took most of the fall." He pauses, not wanting to look bad in front of his classmates. "But she insists she's fine." It was what she herself had said after all. Even though he knew she was lying. He shook his head. That was her problem. He needed to be prepared for when she told someone about his accidental erection. If she wanted to grit her teeth and lie through some pain, maybe that was just pre-emptive karma for her inevitable attempt to humiliate him in the near future.

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Dimitri tosses and turns in his bed that night, unable to fall asleep. He keeps reliving that moment of being on top of Edelgard, effectively having her pinned beneath him against the grass. His hard cock pressed against her inner thigh. Without thinking, his hands dip inside his sweatpants and he's touching himself. He groans at himself, in his head, before glancing over at Sylvain, his roommate in the next bed over. Luckily, Sylvain seems out for the count, lightly snoring like usual. He could pull off a stealth fap if he wanted. He had already masturbated today, and while part of him felt ashamed that he was so horny he could masturbate twice in a day, a much louder part of him was telling him that maybe if he jerked it tonight, he wouldn't feel the need to do so tomorrow. Today was already a failure. Fapping again wouldn't change that, but could save him tomorrow.

He's sliding his hands up and down his cock as he realizes he had already decided to get off tonight. _Fuck it,_ he thought. May as well go all out. He let the memory swallow him, turning it into a fantasy. He imagined being on top of her again, but this time, pulling off her shorts when he pulled away. What would she look like, underneath her panties? What did her abs feel like? Dimitri let himself get taken away by his fantasies. Imagining her gasping and groaning again. Touching her, causing her to make those sounds. What it might feel like inside her-- Before he realizes it, he's cumming. Fuck, that was fast. Way faster than he's ever gotten off before. And it was just as good-- maybe better-- as all the other times too. 

Shame overtakes him just as quickly as his orgasm had. Edelgard had actually been hurt when he fell on top of her, even if she pretended that she was fine, and he had just _gotten off_ on her pain. _Scum. Despicable. You're going to hell for this,_ he found himself thinking. He had to do better, be better, than this. 

Despite his orgasm, Dimitri still struggled to fall asleep. Thankfully, he was no longer being tormented with lust, but he still can't stop thinking about the soccer game. Or rather, what came after it. Which had been nothing in particular at all. Edelgard hadn't told anyone about his boner, it seemed. Maybe she was saving it as ammunition against him later. He would just deny it, of course. But what if she's keeping it a secret just to flaunt it over his head, like she was superior to him now. To compensate for her moment of weakness expressing pain. That had to be it, he thought, almost relieved. He just wouldn't let her play mind games with him like that, he thought, as he finally drifted off to sleep.

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Yet as the week goes on, Edelgard makes no reference or mention of the soccer incident at all. Not to him and not to any other student, as far as he can tell. Dimitri is baffled, but feels a growing sense of relief and gratitude. Which is ridiculous, of course. Feeling grateful towards Edelgard of all people, just for not being a jerk this one time.

It's not until Thursday afternoon several days later, when he and the other house leaders have their weekly meeting, that he gets the chance to properly speak to Edelgard again. Not like he had anything in particular to say to her. The meeting goes smoothly, until the end, where they work on tedious but necessary paperwork after getting the agenda items and planning out of the way. 

"So, I did my share of the paperwork during class this week. So I'm going to bounce. Later!" Claude tells them. Edelgard looks pissed. Dimitri feels both a little annoyed, and envious that he hadn't thought of doing that. 

"You can't just _leave,_ " Edelgard insists. "How do you know you did your paperwork correctly? A lot of the information you need to include you wouldn't have access to in class."

"Aww, is little miss Ice Princess mad I'm leaving her all alone with Mr. Tin Soldier?" he breezily teases with a wink. Edelgard bristles at the nickname, but Dimitri hasn't heard the tin soldier nickname for him before.

"Tin soldier?" he asks, curious.

"You know. So stiff and upright that if it were a person, you know they'd have a stick the length of a golf club up their ass," Claude replies before throwing up a peace sign and shutting the door behind him.

"Ugh. He is so irresponsible," Edelgard groans in the sudden silence.

"I mean, if he really did do his paperwork, it's fine right?" Dimitri doesn't know why he's defending Claude. Probably just because Edelgard is mad at him.

Edelgard grumpily folds her arms. "Maybe. But it's important we're all here for these things, to share our knowledge if we need to." Dimitri doesn't agree or disagree, just shrugs a bit and returns to working on his paperwork. The only noise in the room becomes the scratching of pen against paper and the ticking clock on the wall. It's a while before Dimitri decides to speak again.

"You know," he begins. "I've wanted to uh, thank you." Edelgard looks up at him in mild surprise and curiousity.

"What for?" she asks. Dimitri wants to smack his head against a wall. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, bringing this up. Maybe she's already forgotten._ Though he knew she probably hadn't. It had only been a few days, and she had pretty clearly noticed it. But now he had to keep talking.

"For, ah, the soccer game. When I fell on you."

"Oh. That." Her facial expression is somehow both mildly baffled and slightly condescending. "Why would I tell anybody that you had a boner when you fell on me? It _was_ an accident that you fell, you never try and go for those types of fouls."

Dimitri's mind goes blank. He hadn't thought it out this far, what he would say next. He also wants to correct her and say it was half of a boner. But he knows that he would _really_ be throwing himself into hot water if he said that. Yet he has to respond, somehow, with something.

"Well, uh. You know. It was very inappropriate. And shameful of me. My mind was clearly not in the right place and I ended up in sexual sin," he manages to sputter out. He hears the click of Edelgard set her pen down. She's turned to actually face him and look at him head on. Her expression is clearly irritated. Shit, he must have fucked that up. His mind races trying to pick his words apart and find out where he went wrong. But before he can come to any conclusion, Edelgard speaks. 

"Don't say that. Sexuality is normal and healthy and the Church is terrible for making you feel ashamed over something like a boner, of all things." Dimitri is surprised. That was definitely not what he had expected from her. The urge to defend the Church arises in him, but he feels that that would not go over well with Edelgard. So he settles for silence as he wrestles over the implications of Edelgard's statement in his mind. She goes back to her paperwork, but after a few minutes, drops her pen and sighs. 

"What? Spit it out," she says. "You keep fidgeting like you want to say something else and it's driving me crazy. Just say it, whatever it is."

Ah. Well, there had been a reason, after all, that he hadn't asked her on his own. But he felt emboldened by her demand, and the relief of her brushing off the soccer incident as something she wouldn't even think to try and shame him with.

"Have you..." he coughs. "Have you done it before then? Sex?" As soon as the words are out of his mouth he knows he's made a mistake in saying them. Edelgard fixes him with another one of her condescending and annoyed combo expressions.

"Why on earth would I answer that?" Dimitri immediately flushes bright red.

"Sorry. You're right, that was completely inappropriate of me. I just.... Sorry. Nevermind. I'm going to go now," he says, standing up from his chair and grabbing his bag. He walks out the door without looking back at Edelgard again.

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Sleep eludes him again that night, as he plays his conversation with Edelgard over and over in his mind. It was so tempting to take her words about sexuality being healthy and discard his guilt. And technically, he knew, she was right that sexual urges were normal. But the natural man was an enemy to God, according to the Bible. And just because something is normal doesn't mean it's good. Science may seem to indicate that it's "healthy" to act on sexual urges, but there were always so many factors, and science can't account for spiritual effects. 

After he's had enough internal philosophical wrestling, his mind drifts back to how Edelgard had answered his last question. He wonders if her non-answer means she had had sex before and didn't want to either admit it or lie. But she would have been perfectly capable of lying to him, anyways. And she was right, it was a personal question anyways. Even if she was a virgin, she had no reason to tell him that either. Yet he can't stop thinking about it. Imagining Edelgard having sex. Wondering who it was, if she had done it before. 

He groans out loud into his pillow. Sylvain lets out a mumble from across the room, but thankfully goes back to snoring after a moment. Why did he even care? It's her business. He needed to stop this whole being attracted to Edelgard thing. It was seriously becoming a problem. A thought, which, it turned out, his lower body had decided to emphasize. He was hard again. 

_Nope. Not this time. I am_ not _going to masturbate while thinking of Edelgard again. Or at all. I'm going to sleep this off, and it'll be gone in the morning._

It takes him a while longer to fall asleep, but he manages to do so without touching himself again. But his victory over himself is remarkably short lived, as he realizes immediately upon waking up that he had had a wet dream. About Edelgard. About her tongue, her abs, what her naked body might look like. And it had been an amazing dream. Even in his half-awake, shame filled haze, he wanted to fall asleep again and go back to it. 

_I'm well and truly fucked,_ he thought. _I can't deny it anymore. I can't stop thinking about her when I jerk off. I don't even need porn anymore if I'm fantasizing about her. She's invading my subconscious in my dreams, and my conscious mind every time I see her. I'm so attracted to her. I have it so bad. I am so fucked._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for no intercourse between Dimitri and Edelgard this chapter. I wanted to set up their existing relationship dynamic first, and ending here made for a very natural break before we get to the actual hate-fucking next chapter. 
> 
> Also, more tags will be added as the sex acts they describe occur, but I didn't want to get anyone excited for smut content that I haven't actually published yet.


	2. Ignition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now, the promised hate-fucking. Dimitri POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on content warnings:
> 
>  **Mildly Dubious Consent:** And here's where this tag becomes more relevant. Both are enthusiastic for the sex and enjoying it from beginning to end, but their rivalry/hatred of each other means there's some resistance going on and demands being made as they process what's happening and try and get a psychological (ok, and physical) upper hand on each other.
> 
>  **Violent Sex:** Yeah uh it gets pretty rough. There's also a sudden slap, unexpected by both parties, but very enjoyed by the receiving party. 
> 
> Basically, everything that happens is enjoyed by both of them but they don't really talk about it or get explicit permission beforehand.

The days pass without further incident for a while, as early October becomes mid-October, and the leaves on the trees dotting campus start changing color. It's so pretty outside, that Dimitri is almost able to forget about Edelgard. Almost. While Claude hasn't ditched their house leader meetings since he asked Edelgard if she was a virgin, it was still awful having to deal with her during them. Awful, because of the thrill he felt run through him whenever his eyes met hers. Awful, because he was never able to keep from jerking off later those nights after their meetings. Awful, because she was always perfectly composed while he was always blushing or floundering his words.

It's driving Dimitri mad.

When Claude begs off of a house leader meeting one afternoon, claiming he needs to be at a special archery team seminar, Dimitri wants to beg him to stay, so he doesn't have to be alone with Edelgard again. But after his teasing response to Edelgard last time, he knows that asking won't convince Claude, and it would only embarrass him in front of Edelgard. Luckily, Edelgard doesn't have the same reservations.

"Really, Claude? Again? You know we have to decide the details about what we're doing for the day of community service this week, right?"

Claude shrugged. "We still have time," he said as he hoisted his book bag over his shoulder. "Though if you guys want to figure something out on your own, I wouldn't protest."

"Claude, you know as well as I do that you are nearly always the tie-breaking vote between us. Putting off this decision _again_ means we won't have enough time to properly articulate our positions to each other before we decide." Edelgard's anger creeps into her voice, tinting the cool veneer she always wore.

"Look, I know you and Dimitri get along like oil and water, but at some point I've got to stop being your mediator." Dimitri can see Edelgard clench her jaw at Claude's response. Apparently deciding against berating him further, she just turns back around and goes back to her work without saying another word.

"Have fun, Dimitri," Claude says with a wink as he walks out the door. Dimitri wants to throttle him. Claude knew exactly what he was doing when he said that, framing him as though they were on the same side-- against Edelgard.

Dimitri considers leaving too. As though she could read his mind, Edelgard speaks without looking up from what she's writing.

"Nope. Don't you dare leave too. Not before we agree on the location for the community service project. I do _not_ want to let Claude be the tie-breaker this time if he's going to be so flippant about it." Damn it. He was already on edge. He hoped they would be able to agree on something quickly. Or at least at all.

"Ok then, what about helping the local homeless shelter? The one managed by the Church." _There's no way she can find anything wrong with that_ , Dimitri thinks. Yet Edelgard still presses her lips together in displeasure. "Come on, not even you could think that serving the homeless community wasn't worth the student body's time."

"What, exactly, is that supposed to mean? Not even _m_ _e_?" Edelgard asks him, turning towards him with a full-forced glare.

"Well, forgive me for noticing how aloof you are, looking at the rest of us like ants beneath you." Dimitri is sick and tired of silent games that he and Edelgard play, always trying to win against her by playing nice while she condescends to him. "You're always acting like you're better than everyone, but I bet you don't even care about this day of service and want to cross an agenda item off your list."

Dimitri's lacrosse-honed reflexes are the only thing that saves him as he dodges out of the way of the pen Edelgard had suddenly sent flying through the air at him. 

"How...How dare you?" She's the angriest he's ever seen her. Her usually perfect hair has skewed slightly out of place on the left side of her face, and her usually pale face has started to flush. Dimitri realizes that he's forced her to drop the mask she's always wearing of the perfectly composed and superior honors student. He feels a rush of satisfaction knowing that he's caught her off guard, and watches with a smug smile as he sees her struggle to find a comeback.

"I didn't like your idea because I don't think we should discriminate against who we help." Dimitri scoffs. He has no idea what she means, though it seems she's going to elaborate. "Unmarried families aren't allowed to be together at your oh-so-precious Catholic shelter. Transgender people are rejected. Everyone is forced to attend Mass and enroll in Bible-based assistance programs. The Church is only 'helping' the types of people it approves of and thinks that they can turn into good Catholics."

Edelgard stands up out of her chair, walking around the table they were both seated at. Dimitri stands up himself as an instinctual reaction to Edelgard entering his space. He braces himself, unsure of what's coming. But Edelgard just steps behind him, and bends down to retrieve her pen that she had thrown at him. Dimitri realizes he hasn't responded to her.

"There's nothing wrong with helping people find Christ when they're at their lowest and need Him most," he says.

"There's everything wrong with it!" Edelgard hisses at him. She's only a few feet away from him, slightly leaning towards him as she argues. "It's manipulating vulnerable people, strings attached to the help they need the most. Of course a mindless drone like you can't see that."

Dimitri feels his face twist in anger. The urge to hit her swells inside of him. God, he wants to slap her so badly. She's so close to him, right there in front of him. He wouldn't even need to move his feet. Clenching his fists and taking a deep breath, he takes a step forward. He glares down at her, to intimidate, as a compromise between de-escalating the situation and hitting her. Why had this become an argument? Why was she always looking for something to disagree with him about? He feels a smug satisfaction when Edelgard finally backs down and turns away. The feeling quickly slides away as she continues to speak.

"You know what? I don't care. Do it yourself. I'm going back to my dorm room to study," she says, heading towards her bag on the other side of the table. Before Dimitri can think, he strides towards Edelgard, grabs her hand, whirls her back around to face him, and pins her against the wall. He's trying to take deep breaths and resist his need to hit her. 

"Don't call me that," he growls at her. It's infuriating, how she isn't cowed at all by him when he's towering over her, pressing her back against the wall. The glare she gives him even comes across as more condescending than angry at how he grabbed her.

"What, a mindless drone? Then stop acting like it and parroting everything the Father drones on about during Mass," she spits out at him. Dimitri can feel his rage building. Logically, he knows that he needs to walk away. Remove himself from the presence of this... this horrible woman, before he does something he regrets. 

"You're really going to say that? When you can't escape my hold on you?" he growls again at her. It enrages him, how cool and collected she is right now, even if he had managed to get her to drop her mask earlier.

"Oh, you have me pinned," she sings in a mocking voice. "Like I give a fuck. You're too much of a _good boy_ , a little goody two-shoes, a _pussy_ , to do any--" Dimitri snaps. She's gone _too fucking far_ , now. He moves without thinking, doing the only thing that feels natural, that would get her to shut the fuck up, that gives him power over her.

His lips clash forcefully against hers. Kissing her is as good as he had dreamed it would be. Her soft lips. Her body pressed against his. He licks against her lips, forcing his tongue through. It's that action, it seems, that prompts Edelgard to action. He feels her free hand move, towards his face. He expects her to hit him, to force him away from her. But her hand stops before it reaches his face, instead grasping at the cloth of his uniform dress shirt, jerking him closer towards her. She lets out a soft moan as she parts her mouth to let him inside, kissing him back as aggressively as he was kissing her.

It's thrilling, to realize how much she seems to want him. But anger flares back inside him when he remembers what had lead him to such rash actions. She had no right to be enjoying this. He bites her lip, unwilling to pull away and deny her his mouth, but still wanting to punish her. The gasp of pain she lets out is delightful to him, but he doesn't expect the moan of pleasure that follows right afterwards. She bites him back, seeming to throw herself into the kiss even more than before. He can feel himself start to get hard. 

He moves his free hand towards her hips before sliding underneath her dress shirt. God. All of her feels so soft. Her lips, her waist. Kissing her was utterly intoxicating. His hand travels slowly upwards, and he can feel her breath hitch against his mouth. A low moan escapes his mouth. She feels too good. He can feel her start to grind against him, making him realize how hard he's gotten. He rocks back against her, accentuating her movements.

Dimitri isn't sure how long it is before their faces break apart, almost gasping for air. He doesn't make any effort to step away from her or remove his cock from where it's pressing against her. Edelgard isn't quite looking him in the eye as she catches her breath. He pulls his hand out from under her shirt to grip her chin, forcing her to look at him. Neither of them have said anything yet, but Dimitri isn't sure he would be able to hear her if she tried, with how loud his heartbeat was roaring in his ears. It was like the air between them throbbed with tension, until Dimitri finally breaks it.

"The door," he grunts. "Can it lock?" His grip on Edelgard loosens as he feels her finally pull away, her eyes still locked on his. She turns and strides towards the door. Dimitri briefly wonders if she's going to leave, to report him, or just to escape in general. But she only touches the door to slide the latch that functions as the lock with a loud click that seems to echo in the room. He sees her shrug her jacket off, fold it, and gently place it on top of her bag before tilting her neck to loosen her tie. 

"Well?" he heard Edelgard say, as she lifts her tie over her head and places it on her folded jacket. "Are we doing this or not? This _is_ what you meant, right?" Dimitri feels his face go pink as he processes what she means-- what he had meant when he spoke a moment before-- and when he realizes that _yes_ , he wants this more than anything right now.

Not trusting himself to speak, he nods before reaching to unbutton his shirt, fingers fumbling a bit as he eagerly yanks at them, unintentionally making it more difficult for himself. By the time he manages to pull his shirt off, he sees Edelgard is already in her bra and unzipping her skirt, her dress shirt also neatly folded and set aside. Seeing so much of her skin makes his brain catch up for a moment.

"Condom," he coughs, somewhat embarrassed. "We probably need one." He sees Edelgard open her mouth to say something--probably a quip about birth control being un-Catholic, or about his lack of planning-- but she then closes her mouth, and turns and kneels to rummage through her bag. It doesn't take her long to stand back up and toss whatever she had grabbed towards him. He has to step forward to catch it.

"I'm on birth control because my cramps are awful," she says, "but the pill is only about 90% effective on average, and I am not taking any risks." Dimitri looks down at the condom in his hand, surprised that she had had one on her.

"You carry these around?" He asks, out of genuine curiousity. He realizes how it sounds when Edelgard gives him a defensive glare.

"Yes. For the same reasons I also keep spare tampons and a first aid kit in my bag too." Dimitri regrets saying anything. He definitely hadn't meant to try and shame her for giving him a condom after he had asked for one. "If you're this horny all the time, you should probably start carrying them around too," he hears her add, snark creeping into her voice. Annoyance flares in Dimitri once again.

"Get on the table," he hears himself demand. Edelgard looks at him slightly indignantly.

"I still need to take off my tights," she protests.

"I don't care," he replies, walking towards her, moving his hands under her ass to pick her up and put her on the table himself. Surprisingly she doesn't resist, adjusting herself to be easier to carry. He drops her on the table, scattering the papers they have been working on minutes before. Dimitri knows he should be unbuckling his belt or tearing her tights off, but Edelgard is so close to him right now and he needs to feel her lips against his again. He pulls her in for another open-mouthed kiss.

This time, they're able to angle their heads at better angles, and both of Edelgard's hands are free. He feels her move them down his shoulders and onto his chest. He relishes the heat of her hands against his pecs. He knows he looks good, with a good amount of muscle packed into his frame. It's exhilarating, having her touch him with desperate want. He feels her hands slide down, slowly but deliberately, as she splays her fingers across his other muscles. He realizes his hands are still on her ass, and he's missing the opportunity to explore her body in return.

One of his hands slides up her bare back, while the other drifts towards her chest. he thumbs the underwire of her bra for a moment before slipping his hand underneath. He feels her gasp into his mouth and arch her back a bit before settling down again, pushing his even further up. He palms and squeezes her breast with his whole hand, marveling at the feel. 

Dimitri brushes her already stiff nipple with his palm, enjoying the shudders he could feel going through Edelgard at his touch. He uses his fingers to flick her nipple, reveling in the soft moans she let out the more he played with her. A smirk creeps onto his face as he decides to push harder, and pinches her nipple, causing her to sharply gasp. He squeezes harder, and Edelgard is affected so much she breaks their kiss, moaning into the side of his face instead.

"Don't tell me you're _enjoying_ this," he crows with a sly grin. "I never would have taken you to be such a masochist." Edelgard only glares at him, but it doesn't carry any power when Dimitri can see her squirming, thighs pressing together in an instinctive attempt to relieve her tension. He supposes he can show her a bit of kindness, moving his hand against the front of her tights. She bucks into him and bites her lip, pulling one of her hands away from his abs to guide his fingers down lower until he realizes that they're now press against her clit. A huge flash of arousal surges through Dimitri as he realizes how much she's at his mercy right now. He becomes acutely aware of his throbbing cock trapped in his dress pants that feel way more tight than they did this morning.

"Stop fucking around already," Edelgard pants, her hands starting to pull down at her tights to take them off herself if he wasn't going to. Dimitri grabs both of her hands and moves them away, stopping her. He feels her try and pull himself out of his grip, but he doesn't relent. He lets her sit in silence for a moment before he speaks.

"If you want this," he says in a low voice, " _Shut. the fuck. up_." To his surprise, she immediately relents and slackens. "That's better," he says with a smile. He lets go of her wrists, and moves to unhook her bra. It takes him a moment, but he manages to undo the clasps and pull it off of her. He tosses the garment aside on the table, though he makes an effort to not have it hit the carpeted floor. He looks her up and down, considering what he wanted to do her to next. Her bare breasts were quite pleasant to look at, but Dimitri would rather have as much of her against him as possible.

He decides to kiss her neck and move downwards, holding her hips in place against the table with his hands. Feeling her jolt against his firm hold on her as he teased moans out of her was such a delicious feeling. He continues that way, sucking against her neck, and then her shoulder, slowly and deliberately moving downwards towards the tops of her breasts. He feels her getting impatient again, but she seems to be resisting trying to set the pace herself. Dimitri decides to reward her for this achievement, something he knows must be difficult for her to do-- to cede control, and to him of all people.

He moves his hands upward and tug at the hem of her tights, pulling them down over her hips. Edelgard shifts to help him tug her tights down her legs and onto the floor. Dimitri takes the opportunity to take off his belt and unbutton his pants before slipping his fingers underneath Edelgard's panties and moving his fingers to where she had guided him before.

"Ah," Edelgard groans softly, "a little lower." Dimitri almost tells her to shut up again, but decides that he'll excuse it, moving his fingers how she had indicated. He slowly starts to move them back and forth, and he can tell he's doing something right when Edelgard's breaths start to get shorter and she clutches his back tightly, nails digging into his skin. That's when he decides to pull away again, this time actually pulling his pants down, and unbuttoning his boxers.

He finds the condom Edelgard had tossed him earlier, and unwraps it. Edelgard watches him, amused, as he figures out how to put it on. She nods when he seems to have done it right. Dimitri feels embarrassment and annoyance rise inside him at his clear inexperience. The smug look she has on her face pisses him off. He pushes her down until her back is against the table, and starts fingering her again while groping one of her breasts with his other hand. He moves to start kissing her tits when Edelgard sits up a bit, propping herself up on her elbow.

"What's the matter, Dimitri?" She smirks at him. "Scared? Is that why you haven't put it in yet?" Anger and shame flood his body and before he can stop himself, he realizes that his temper is erupting and he's slapped her across the face.

"I said," he growled. " _Shut. Up._ " Edelgard only stares at him in a shocked silence. Her cheek is turning red from the force of the slap. It's seeing that, the proof of what he's done, that snaps him out of the sadistic, angry lust that had consumed him since he and Edelgard had started yelling at each other.

"Oh my God," Dimitri gasps. He moves towards her as if to touch where he had slapped her, but then jerks back, realizing that Edelgard probably didn't want him anywhere near her anymore. Yet for some reason, when he tries to step back, Edelgard's legs have hooked around him, and he can't step backwards without tripping or pulling her off the table with him.

"I-I'm so sorry, Edelgard," he sputters, turning away. He can't look her in the eye after he did that to her. Especially when he realizes with a rising horror that his cock is still rock hard. He had _enjoyed_ that. "I didn't mean--" he stops himself before he can finish that sentence. It didn't matter that he hadn't meant to, only that it had happened anyways. He had hit a classmate. A _girl_. Who is technically his step-sister. That he almost had sex with. Bile rises in his throat as he processes everything that's been happening. "I, I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?" He cringes at himself, of course she is. "Are you okay? I'm so so--" he's cut off when Edelgard grabs his chin and swivels it back towards her. She had sat up more, and had an unreadable expression on her face. There's a tense pause for a moment, before Edelgard finally speaks, still holding his jaw.

"Choke me."

"W-what?" Dimitri stammers. He's still reeling from his sudden outburst. He couldn't have heard her correctly.

"Shut up and choke me," she repeats." There's a short pause before she narrows her eyes at him and appends her statement. "Bitch."

Dimitri feels rage surge through him again towards Edelgard. Yet he's had a moment to recover from his earlier tunnel vision, and stands in place, looking at Edelgard. She seems no less aroused than she was before he had slapped her-- her breathing still heavy and face still flushed, her eyes dancing from his cock to his abs to his pecs to his face and back. 

_Could she have-- could she mean it?_ he wondered. The theory solidified as he realized that she must have purposefully taunted him just now. Tried to get him angry on purpose, so he would hit her again. His first instinct is to refuse, and run away from this whole situation. His second, louder impulse, came from his throbbing cock. He wanted to fuck her so badly. Hit her again. And she was asking him to-- demanding, really. His pulse was pounding in his ears. He might regret this later. She might regret this later. But after all that had happened this afternoon, he wasn't going to stop here if she wasn't.

He reaches out to grasp the sides of her throat. Gently, at first, but then more firmly as he saw the look Edelgard was giving him. He knew (somehow, he couldn't remember where he had learned it) that sexual choking was better done from the sides of the neck, and not the front, so as to not crush the other person's windpipe. He's grateful, now, for that knowledge.

He can feel her heartbeat in his hands, and feels the vibrations coming from her throat before he hears her speak.

"Harder," she says. Dimitri ignores her for now, instead lining up his cock with her entrance. He feels Edelgard's heartbeat quicken as she realizes what he's doing. He slowly starts to apply more pressure to her neck, unsure how much force will be too much for Edelgard, as he slides inside her.

She's so wet. Even after the time it took him to apply the condom, the subsequent slap, his apologies, and the time it took him to warm back up. He grunts as he starts to move his hips back and forth. God. If kissing her was better than he had ever imagined, actually fucking her was better than...better than he could have possibly dreamed was even physically possible. 

"You must have really wanted this, huh?" he asks while thrusting into her. "Tell me," he continues, "How often have you fantasized about this? How long have you wanted my cock in your cunt and my fist around your throat?" He digs further into her, picking up his pace. Edelgard moans, her eyes fluttering closed.

"Harder," she gasps out as he back arches. Dimitri wants nothing more than to oblige her, but bides his time in fulfilling her request. Fucking her is utterly exhilarating. How she feels around his cock, how wet she is for him. How she looks beneath him, breathless and wanting. The sounds she's making, desperate gasps and uninhibited moans. How completely in control he is of her and her pleasure right now.

As he thrusts, he feels himself wanting to go deeper inside her, but the angles her thighs were at kept him from penetrating her with his entire cock. He pulls his hands away from her throat, seeing bright red marks that he has already left behind. Edelgard's eyes open and she looks at him questioningly. Before she can say anything, Dimitri lifts her legs up over his shoulders, settling into a comfortable position for both of them.

He finally slides all the way inside of her. Edelgard breathes in sharply. He wonders if he feels big to her, and considers asking, before deciding against it. He doesn't want her thinking of any other cocks right now, let alone comparing them with his. He's going to make sure she can only think of him right now, and in all her future fantasies.

Dimitri squeezes her throat with more force. He carefully watches her face, hoping to notice any signs of suffocation before a serious injury occurred. But her face, while heavily flushed and bright red, doesn't seem to be turning purple, or worse. She isn't telling him to grip harder, either. So he maintains the force he currently has, as his thrusts into her become faster and faster. He can tell he's close to coming when his breaths become more ragged. He's not sure what the etiquette is-- if he should tell her, even though he's wearing a condom.

"Ah, Dimitri," Edelgard pants. "I-- I'm close." He can feel it, through how she's tensing up, getting tighter around him.

"Me too," he groans. "Should I--" ah, fuck, she felt so good. "Should I pull out?"

"No, don't," comes her response. "Your cock feels too good," she admits with a moan. It's that praise ends up finally tipping Dimitri over the edge. She wanted him so badly. His cock felt so good. So good she didn't want him to pull out, even after saying at the beginning that she wasn't going to take any chances. He gasps as he begins to cum, then moans, as his semen fills the condom he's wearing. He can feel Edelgard tense up even more, and he realizes that she's orgasming too as she lets out a string of curses punctuated with moans and his name. He keeps pumping back and forth, though slowing down, until he feels her completely relax and he's ridden out the last waves of his orgasm, and finally releases his grip on her neck.

They remain where they are for a long moment, each breathing heavily and recovering from the intense sex they had just had. Edelgard sits up on the table, fully this time, and looks at him with an expression he's not sure how to parse.

"We should probably get going," she ends up saying. "It's pretty late in the afternoon." She pushes off the table and grabs her tights and underthings, already moving to re-dress herself. Dimitri still stands there, pants and boxers hanging from his knees, processing what just happened. He looks down at his slowly deflating cock, and the condom around it. He pulls it off and ties off the end so it doesn't drip or spill. He looks back towards Edelgard, who has somehow already put on her underwear and tights and is stepping into her skirt.

"We..." he says, a bit dumfounded. "We just did. _that_."

"Indeed," Edelgard replies evenly. "It seems you enjoyed it quite a bit," she adds with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, though Dimitri doesn't sense any animosity in her tone for once. He realizes he should be getting dressed again too, and pulls up his boxers, and then his pants. 

"You did well, you know," Edelgard suddenly says, breaking the silence between them. "Especially for your first time-- I assume." Dimitri feels his face turning pink again, somehow only now becoming flustered.

"Oh. Thank you. You're... correct about that assumption." He isn't sure why he tells her that information, though after what they had just done together, it seems like mere trivia to offer up to her. "Was it," he coughs a bit, "That wasn't your first time too, was it?" Edelgard turns more towards him to look at him while she buttons up her shirt.

"Of course not," she replies. Dimitri blinks, a little surprised she had answered him at all after her initial reply to that same question last week.

"That's cool," he ends up responding, wincing after hearing the words that came out of his mouth. Shit. He has no idea what to say. "Aw man. We did that. Oh, God, we really did that. And I hit you. And choked you. Oh God." 

"Don't you dare confess this to the priest," Edelgard tells him sharply. "There is no way Headmistress Rhea will let me be valedictorian if she knows about this. And there is no way that Father Seteth wouldn't inform her of something like this."

"Oh, so you think that _you're_ going to be the valedictorian?" His competitiveness and resentment of her flares inside of him again after its short absence. Her audacity. Just assuming she was going to be valedictorian unless someone ran interference. Edelgard clenches her jaw at him, narrowing her eyes. Dimitri realizes he hasn't directly responded to her. He sighs.

"I won't tell the Father," he promises. "Especially not to ruin your class rank. I'm not _that_ petty, despite what you may think." He pauses, noticing the faint marks on her neck that were still visible even when she had her jacket on over her collared uniform shirt. "Besides," he continues, "look at those bruises on your throat. You just have to tell a priest, or a teacher, that I raped you, and that's it, I would be expelled." Edelgard's fingers fly to her collar, touching where Dimitri had choked her so hard that he had left marks.

"Not like I would do that either," she says, pulling out her phone to check her neck for herself with its camera. "For one, that would still be a silent disqualification for the valedictorian spot." Dimitri frowns at her and doesn't reply. It's only when she glances at him and sees his expression, that she clarifies. "Oh. That's not the only reason of course. I know you don't think highly of me, but I do believe in having integrity. Making a false accusation like that against you..." she shakes her head. "would be unconscionable," she finishes. 

Dimitri nods, feeling a combination of guilt, for both the sexual sin he had committed and for promising not to confess it, and relief, for knowing that they would keep this secret for each other. By now he has finished buttoning up his shirt, and put his belt back on. the condom still wasn't thrown away, he realizes, and tosses it in the classroom trash can as he walks towards the door with his bag.

"Wait, no," Edelgard says. "Not here in this trash can. Dump it somewhere else, ideally a trash can that a lot of people have access to." Dimitri's annoyance at her surges again.

"What, you're that ashamed of having sex with me? Am I that repulsive to you?" He knows that they had just agreed not to tell anybody about what had happened, but he's still kind of irritated at the lengths of her paranoia. Edelgard purses her lips and fixes him with a look he usually categorized as 'condescending.'

"It's just common sense. Forgive me for wanting to keep something like this private," she says slightly irritably as she runs her fingers through her hair to adjust it to cover her neck. "You might not understand because you're a guy, but this isn't just about the valedictorian thing. Do you remember when Dorothea wasn't in class for about a week during our freshman year?" Dimitri waits to see if she would answer her question herself, but it seems like she's actually waiting on his answer.

"That vaguely rings a bell," he admits, scratching the back of his neck.

"That was when someone vandalized our dorm room door to call her the whore of Babylon," Edelgard continues. "Not like I really care if people think I'm a sinner, but I could really do without the public shaming if I can help it." Dimitri isn't sure what to say. He hadn't known that anything like that had happened at Garreg Mach before.

"Oh..." he just says.

"Anyways," Edelgard breezily continues. "I.... enjoyed this. If you manage to work your way through your post-coitus guilt, I wouldn't mind doing it again some time." With that, she just walks out the door, not even saying goodbye. Dimitri stands there for a moment, trying to sort out the different emotions and thoughts going through his mind. _Did she really just say she wanted to do this again? I just committed a terrible sin. But it felt so good. I hit her, and enjoyed it. But she wanted it. But it was as sin. But I can't tell anybody, not even the priest._ He shook his head to try and clear his thoughts. He could think about this later. Right now, he probably needed to go back to his dorm room and study. _But fuck,_ he thought. _That was good._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter won't have sexual content, it's planned to be a transitionary interlude of sorts.
> 
> PS: thank you to everyone who likes this!! I'm very glad you all do. I'd like to give a special shout out to the twitter user who said i had the biggest brain on this [twitter's?] website. i screenshotted it and had it open alongside the comments on chapter 1 while I was writing this chapter to refuel my motivation whenever I got distracted from writing.


	3. interludes i & ii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interlude I: Edelgard POV. Interlude II: Dimitri POV

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Interlude I: Edelgard**

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Edelgard is honestly a little bit surprised that she can still walk after her... _encounter_ with Dimitri. Yet somehow, she was still able to stand afterwards, re-dress herself normally, and start walking back to her dorm room without her legs collapsing on her. She knows that she should be thinking about what she'll need to study for when she gets back to her room, but it's difficult to think about homework when she's still processing that she just fucked _Dimitri_ , of all people.

It was cute, how he had reacted after realizing that he had hit her. What he hadn't realized, as he was bumbling over his apologies, was how fucking turned on it had made her. A flash of pleasure goes through her just at the memory. She prefers choking, but a good, hard slap was still incredibly arousing. God, it had felt so thrilling to have him fuck her. The way he had completely dominated her, despite his usual, more yielding, temperament. Edelgard shivers a bit, remembering. Though she should maybe stop remembering so vividly for now, because she was nearly at her and Dorothea's shared dorm room.

She gives a courtesy knock on the door as she opens it, in case Dorothea is inside. It turns out she is, and is reading what looks like a script at her desk.

"Oh, evening, Edie! You're back later than usual, I was almost about to get worried for you," Dorothea greets her brightly, though Edelgard knows that the concern she had mentioned at the end had been genuine. She shrugs her jacket off and places it on her chair before responding.

"The house leader meeting went longer than planned," she carefully sums up. She turns around to see Dorothea facing her with a skeptical look.

"Are you sure that's the reason?" Dorothea asks with a pointed look towards Edelgard's neck. _Shit_. She had forgotten about her bruises. Not that she particularly wants to hide what happened from her best friend, but she still feels like she's been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Did you......" Dorothea trails off before finishing her sentence, eyebrows raised high. Edelgard sighs.

"Maybe," she replies in feigned defeat. 

"With......Claude? Or..." Dorothea continues to ask.

"Dimitri," she admits with another sigh. Somehow, Dorothea's eyebrows raise even higher and her eyes bug out a bit.

"No way! I always thought you guys hated each other! How long has this been happening?" 

"Since about..." Edelgard glances towards the clock sitting on her dresser, and winces. "Thirty-ish minutes ago?" Dorothea laughs.

"Holy shit. Oh my god. Go get it, girl." Edelgard chooses to ignore Dorothea, and turns to rummage through her dresser, looking for her seldon-used makeup bag and pulling it out. "Do you want help with that?" Dorothea offers. "It looks like it would be hard to cover those up by yourself, even with a mirror."

"Thank you Dorothea. That would be nice, actually." Edelgard says, sitting down in her desk chair and pulling her hair to one side.

"Hmm," she hears Dorothea hum with unease. "Are you sure you're okay? I thought these were hickeys but they actually look more like bruises now that I can see them properly." 

"I asked him to," Edelgard responds evenly.

"Damn, Edie, I am _learning things_ about you today," Dorothea says as she starts to smudge Edelgard's concealer over her marked skin. She works in silence for a minute before finally speaking up again. "Just know that you can trust me, okay? I don't want to ignore bruises you might get in the future that you _didn't_ ask for." A rush of gratitude fills Edelgard as she realizes how glad she is to have someone like Dorothea as a friend. 

"Thank you, I appreciate it. Though honestly, I doubt it's going to happen again," she says. 

"Okay, I think that covers it well enough," Dorothea tells her as she pulls her fingers away from Edelgard's neck. Let me know if you need help tomorrow morning."

"Thanks, Dorothea," Edelgard says with a smile. 

"It's nothing," she replies. "Seriously. You were like my one ally at this school for the first half of freshman year. This," she says, waving towards Edelgard's neck, "is literally the least I can do for you. And don't thank me again!" she finishes with a laugh. "You've done that enough tonight already." Edelgard opens her mouth to argue, but decides against it and closes her mouth again.

"Ugh. I am so tired. I know I should be studying but I just want to lie down, you know?" she groans.

"If those bruises are any indication, you've certainly had a... _vigorous_ afternoon. Go lie down if you want. I'll wake you up when it's dinner time," Dorothea tells her as she sits back down at her desk to go back to her reading. Edelgard yawns. 

"That would be lovely," she mumbles as she drags herself on top of her bed. Damn, she didn't even want to change out of her clothes, or get under the covers. She must be really tired. _Maybe sex with Dimitri took more energy out of me than I thought it did,_ she thinks with another yawn as she feels her mind drift off towards sleep.

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**Interlude II: Dimitri**

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Dimitri isn't quite able to focus on his math homework after what had happened earlier with Edelgard. He tries anyways, and is able to get through some of the problems, but he keeps finding his thoughts drifting back towards the sex he had had earlier that afternoon with Edelgard. It's only when he notices that it's gotten to be six o clock, that he decides to give his homework a rest and head down to the dining hall.

It's surprisingly easy for him to relax and behave normally with Felix, Ingrid, and Sylvain. Dedue usually joined them as well, but apparently he was working on his biology project with Ashe-- a terrarium the size of a large fishtank-- that night instead. Easy to act normally, that is, until he sees Edelgard enter the dining hall with her friend Dorothea. She's still in the clothes she had worn earlier, and they look slightly rumpled. His mind flashes back to her naked body sitting on the table in front of him. Edelgard doesn't seem to notice him yet, as she and Dorothea survey the various counters offering food. Dimitri doesn't realize that he's staring until Felix snaps his fingers in front of his face to get his attention.

"Dimitri. Earth to Dimitri," Felix says with an irritated look on his face.

"Ah, sorry about that," he replies, sliding his gaze back towards his friends. Edelgard still hovers in the corner of his peripheral vision. "What were you saying?" He rejoins the conversation, something about lacrosse, he thinks, but he can't stay focused on whatever they're talking about. Over the course of eating his meal, he finds himself continually glancing at Edelgard, wondering if she's noticed that he's here in the dining hall too. Sylvain's boisterous laugh suddenly breaks his contemplation.

"Dimitri, dude, you can _not_ stop staring at Edelgard. What happened during your house leader meeting this afternoon?" Sylvain teases with a grin. Dimitri stiffens, but tries to suppress it so as to not look suspicious.

"Nothing in particular," he says, clearing his throat. "And I have no idea what you mean." Dimitri decides that the best course of action is to play dumb.

"Oh, come on dude. Ingrid, you noticed too, right?" Sylvain scoffs, turning towards Ingrid.

"You have seem rather distracted this whole time, Dimitri," she says diplomatically. 

"My apologies. I'll try and stay focused on our conversation," he replies rigidly. He sees Sylvain raise his eyebrows in skepticism, but thankfully Sylvain doesn't continue to hound him.

"I was actually just finishing," Ingrid said with an apologetic smile. "I have an essay I need to get back to working on." She gets up from their table, and goes to put away her dirty dishes.

"Me too," Felix says with a groan. "I don't know why Hanneman assigned us an essay in a science class, but we still have to do it."

"You look finished with your meal too, Dimitri," Sylvain says. "Let's head back to our room." Sylvain is being too casual. Dimitri has a feeling that he hasn't actually let up on his Edelgard line of questioning, a suspicion that proves to be true as Sylvain wheels around and faces him once they get back to their shared dorm room.

"Okay dude, spill. _Clearly_ , something happened with Edelgard this afternoon." Dimitri sighs. Sylvain is sharper than he likes to let on, but Dimitri had promised Edelgard that he wouldn't tell anyone about their hook-up.

"We had our house leader meeting, argued a lot, and then she left." Technically not a lie. If you didn't count his lie of omission by not mentioning the intense sex they had had in-between arguing and Edelgard leaving.

"Sure," Sylvain replies sarcastically. "Because you've never been able to keep your eyes off of Edelgard after you guys argue. Something that happens, like, every day." Dimitri grits his teeth as he feels his face start to get pink. His own damn body betraying him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he chokes out, not knowing any other option but to keep playing dumb. Sylvain gives him another look of bewilderment.

"Seriously, D? Have you really not realized that you're crushing on the school's resident ice queen?" he asks. Dimitri definitely feels his face flush even further. He tries to sputter out a denial, but Sylvain raises his hand to stop him. "Look, dude, you're pretty easy to read, especially to me who's known you since we were babies. I won't force you to admit it or anything, but I'm in your corner, ok? Even if you're the type of masochist that would want to put up with Edelgard."

 _Oh, the irony_ , Dimitri thinks. _I am definitely not the masochist in this... whatever we have_. He's grateful, though, that Sylvain is willing to support him even if he doesn't know all the details.

"It's just tiring, arguing with her all the time, after so many years. You know?" he finally decides to go with, wanting to confide in Sylvain but knowing that his promise to Edelgard is more important.

"Okay." Sylvain seems to accept that answer, though he's not entirely sure that Sylvain actually believes it. "If you ever need to borrow some condoms though, feel free to take from my stash," he adds with a laugh, indicating towards the top drawer of his dresser. Dimitri feels his face heat up and his mouth go dry. He knows Sylvain is mostly joking, but he's closer to the truth than he's aware of. Dimitri doesn't trust himself with a response of any kind, so just turns away and sits at his desk, trying to focus on the last of his math problems before heading to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed getting a peek into Edelgard's head! Next chapter is more porn so get hyped! No idea if I'll be able to get it out as quickly as I've been getting these first few chapters out, though.


	4. Flashfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dimitri POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Specific CWs for this chapter:
> 
>  **Rough Sex:** Biting that breaks the skin, enjoyed by receiving party

Dimitri goes the rest of the week without speaking to Edelgard, though she maintains a consistent presence in his thoughts. His memories taunt him, keeping him awake at night. Most frustrating to him is that whenever he sneaks glances at her during class, she never seems to be looking back at him. She just sits there, alert and taking notes as always, as Professor Hanneman drones on about covalent bonds. 

Mass has been more difficult to attend, too. The guilt he feels for having sex, for not confessing, for thinking about breaking his promise to Edelgard and telling the priest anyways-- for the first time he can remember, being inside of the cathedral feels like he's suffocating, drowning in his own shame. At first he tries to hate Edelgard, blame her for his sin. It works for a day or two, but soon enough he feels even worse for trying to dodge taking responsibility for his own actions. Though he still doesn't like seeing Edelgard; any thought of her feels like a pinprick against his consciousness.

He tries not to let his outward behavior towards Edelgard change, after Felix and Sylvain had commented on him staring at her in the dining hall that first evening. It doesn't seem to work, though, as Dimitri finds himself unable to keep himself from throwing verbal daggers in her general direction when the opportunity presents itself. Always when he knows she would hear him, and never when she would have the opportunity to insert herself into the conversation or otherwise respond. Dimitri knows it's petty, but it's his only outlet for his sexual frustration that he allows himself not to feel too guilty about.

Working together in the house leader meetings is almost tolerable, with Claude there to carefully balance the unspoken strain between the two of them. Unfortunately, it seems God wishes to punish him further, perhaps in retaliation for Dimitri's deliberate omission when he goes to the confessionals. He and Edelgard have been assigned to work together on a short presentation about some nineteenth-century European historical figure for Mr. Rangeld's history class. When he goes to the teacher to ask to be reassigned, he's only met with a hearty laugh and told that with he and Edelgard both being chronic overachievers, this was the only way the teacher could think of to make sure neither of their partners just coasted off the other's work.

Knowing that he would finally be forced to speak directly to Edelgard again, Dimitri sighs as he walks away from Mr. Rangeld's desk and out of the classroom. To his surprise, he sees Edelgard standing outside the door, waiting. 

"I'm free after four this afternoon," she begins without preamble. "I'll meet you then by the study rooms on the fourth floor of the library." Dimitri clenches his hands into fists to try and suppress the irritation welling up inside him.

"What if I'm busy then?" he snaps at her.

"Are you?" she asks bluntly with a raised eyebrow. Dimitri grits his teeth. He isn't. Edelgard holds his gaze for a moment before speaking again. "We should just get this over with as soon as we can. I'm as thrilled as you are about working together, but that does _not_ mean I can afford to get a bad grade on this assignment." 

"Fine," Dimitri huffs. "I'll meet you there at four." Edelgard gives him a small smile.

"See you then," she says as she turns around to walk to her next class. Dimitri scowls as he watches her walk away, before remembering that he also has another class he needs to get to. Heading to his next classroom, he tries to push all thoughts involving Edelgard out of his head so he can focus better.

His efforts are only partially successful, and when classes finish for the day, he finds himself heading towards the library already. He may as well get there early and study on his own until she shows up. As difficult as studying is with his mind repeatedly wandering back to the last time they were alone together, he manages to become so engrossed in his textbook that he doesn't notice Edelgard's arrival until she speaks to him.

"I got a key for the study room at the end of the hall," she says with a nod of her head in its direction. 

"Mm," Dimitri grunts in response, putting away his textbook into his book bag. He stands and follows her to the door. Once inside, Edelgard places her book bag on the table and immediately begins talking.

"So, the first thing we need to do, is to decide who the presentation is going to be about," she says. "I was thinking of Otto von Bismarck-- he was a huge figure in nineteenth-century Europe, and his impact extended into the twentieth century as well." She waits, looking expectantly at Dimitri. For some reason, her tone makes him angry. It was just like her to try and take control like this.

"I don't want to do Otto von Bismarck," he scowls as he folds his arms in stubborn defiance. "We should do someone more interesting." He sees Edelgard's eyebrow twitch.

"I'm not sure who exactly is more interesting than the iron chancellor," she argues back, "but if you have any alternative ideas I'll listen." Dimitri's scowl deepens. He had no alternative ideas, but he didn't want to just let Edelgard take charge. He tries to think for a moment, but nothing pops into his mind to save him. He just glares at her in response. Edelgard holds his gaze for a while, until she sighs and slouches back in her chair.

"God," she groans, running her hand through the hair closest to her forehead. "I almost can't believe you were more agreeable when I was asking you to choke me." Dimitri's scowl deepens at Edelgard's first acknowledgement of their previous hook-up. It was just like her to bring that up in an entirely unrelated argument. 

" _You're_ more agreeable when you have my cock inside you," he counters angrily. Maybe that would shut her up and they could just start working already. But Edelgard gets a thoughtful look on her face at his words instead of being embarrassed, or angry with him in return.

"Does that mean you'll stop arguing with me on this if I blow you?" Dimitri blinks. Did she really just say that? Was she serious? Had he meant what he said just now? He has to respond to her, answer her. To say no, of course.

"It really means that much to you?" he snorts instead with a skeptical look. Edelgard sighs.

"At this point, I just want to get this done as fast as possible instead of sitting here arguing about it for the next hour," she says.

"Then just agree to what I want," he retorts.

"No."

"Why not?" He sees Edelgard clench her jaw.

"Because you don't have any ideas, you just don't want to agree to mine." Dimitri glowers. She was right, but he wasn't going to admit it. "If sex is the only way you know how to vent your anger," she continues, "I would rather give you a quick orgasm than fight you until we scrape together something passable."

Dimitri bites his lip. She's offering him an easy out, a way for them to move forward on this project without him having to back down or admit defeat. _Sex is still a sin_ , he thinks, despite the traitorous whisper in the back of his head, telling him that he was already a sinner and that he wouldn't fall _that_ much farther if he were to indulge again. His own body was betraying him too, as he felt the beginnings of a hard-on make his pants feel tighter. He had made his decision, already, he realizes, as he stands up and walks towards Edelgard.

"On your knees, then," he orders as he unbuttons his pants. This was going to be on his terms, even if it was her idea. Edelgard kneels as he told her to, despite the half-glare she gave him for ordering her around. He slowly starts stroking his cock underneath his pants, as Edelgard pulls her hair back behind her ears. She then reaches towards his pants, tugging the zipper down fully. Dimitri pulls his hand back and lets Edelgard do the pumping for him. 

He jolts a bit when he first feels her tongue on him, licking leisurely up and down his cock as she continues to slowly stroke him. He makes the mistake of glancing down at her, and Edelgard meets his gaze with a smug look on her face. Without breaking eye contact, she puts the head and top bit of the shaft of his penis in her mouth and swirls her tongue around the tip. Dimitri closes his eyes and tilts his neck back as she starts to move her head back and forth, taking more of his cock into her mouth. It felt incredible; Edelgard clearly knew what she was doing. 

His cock is throbbing, and he feels a white-hot heat coiling in his core. He's so hard already, he needs Edelgard to move faster, do more. Dimitri opens his eyes again and places his hands on her head. At first he just guides her to move faster, but then he grips the hair close to her scalp and pulls a bit, taking more control of her movements. He feels the moan come from her throat more than he hears it. 

_So she still likes pain, even when she isn't receiving?_ he wonders to himself. _Well. If that's what she wants, I can certainly oblige her._ Dimitri tightens his grip on her hair and pushes her head further down, controlling the pace as she bobbed up and down his cock.

"I wonder how wet you are right now," he muses aloud in a low voice. "I know you're enjoying this." Edelgard doesn't answer, her mouth fully occupied. She meets his eyes again, and he sees her cheeks hollow out just a bit more, as she sucks in a bit, applying more pressure on his cock. Dimitri starts thrusting his hips into her mouth almost involuntarily.

"You know what," he quietly taunts, "I think you've been craving this. My cock inside you. Didn't get enough last time?" his voice is low but he knows Edelgard can hear every word he's saying. She can't speak, but the look in her eyes as he thrusts into her mouth says enough. _I'm not the only one_ , they seem to say. It must be obvious to her how much Dimitri wants her, as he reaches almost the edge of orgasm. 

_I can't let her win like this_ , Dimitri thinks. He decides to push her a bit further, and see how much of his cock she could really take. Edelgard's eyes widen a bit as he pushes his cock deeper into her throat, but she's able to take him without much trouble-- until she reaches the base of his shaft and involuntarily gags a bit. Exactly what Dimitri had been hoping for. The satisfaction of seeing his cock entirely in her mouth, knowing that she almost couldn't manage it-- he's so close to coming. Just a bit more. He thrusts harder, shoving his cock down her throat as he feels his core tense, straining for release. 

Finally, he cums down her throat, hot semen emptying into her mouth. Edelgard jerks away from him, likely surprised by his orgasm. Dimitri feels a twinge of guilt at forgetting to warn her, but his guilt is quickly forgotten as Edelgard pumps her hands around his cock to make up for the sudden loss of her mouth around it. He still hasn't stopped releasing semen, his cum spurting onto Edelgard's face. The sight of her, cum dripping out of her mouth, her face a mess, and the way she's giving him a slightly annoyed look--probably for making such a mess-- lets him finish his orgasm as intensely as it had began.

"Ah," he gasps in apology, "Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking."

"Mhm," Edelgard hums as she carefully turns towards her bag. "Do you have any tissues or something? I'd rather not clean my face with my shirt if I can help it."

"Oh, I do actually," Dimitri responds. He heads towards his bag on the other side of the room, before remembering that he hadn't put his dick away yet. He pauses to tuck it and his balls back inside his boxers, and zip up his pants, before going and getting the travel pack of tissues he kept in his bag. "Here," he says, offering the whole package to Edelgard.

"Thanks."

Dimitri isn't sure what to do while she wipes the semen off her face. So he only leans back with a satisfied smile, continuing to watch Edelgard. His smile turns into a slight frown when he sees the smug glint in her eyes as she turns back towards him, face clean. 

"Well then," she says. "Since we're going to be doing our presentation on Bismarck, I think we can start looking for some good resources in th--" Dimitri cuts off her off before she can finish.

"Wait, we're going back to our assignment already?" He asks. Edelgard gives him a patronizing look.

"Too tired after your orgasm?" she baits him. Dimitri glares.

"It wouldn't be fair if I didn't return the favor, wouldn't it?" He asks. Edelgard's expression turns to one of surprise.

"You want to go down on me?" she asks incredulously. "You can just ask if that aroused me, you know."

"That does interest me," he admits. "But I'm serious." He folds his arms and gives her his best stubborn look. 

"Do you even know how to eat a girl out?" she questions him, raising her eyebrows. Dimitri bites the inside of his cheek, refraining from giving her an answer. He didn't, but he couldn't just admit that to Edelgard. She waits for a moment, and sighs when he remains silent. "Fine," she relents to his surprise. "If you can get me off with your fingers, maybe next time I'll let you go down on me." She smirks at him again, but with less menace than she usually used. 

Dimitri decides to ignore her use of the phrase "next time," and instead walks towards Edelgard again. He traces the band of her skirt, but before he can dip his fingers underneath it, she hikes it up and directs his hand underneath her exposed tights and panties. It's his turn to smirk now, when he feels how wet and slick she already is. He rubs his fingers against her clit for a moment, but then pauses as he feels how wet she is and contemplates. It's only a short pause, though, before he decides that she's slick enough to take a finger or two already, and he slides his index and middle finger inside her. 

Feeling her gasp at the intrusion and squirm against him, grasping his waist to steady herself, had Dimitri proud of himself. He doesn't move quite yet, letting her settle, before he slowly starts moving his hand back and forth. Edelgard's grip on him tightens as she starts to rock herself against him, grinding onto his hand.

"Mmm," she moans. "More."

Dimitri rests his other hand on her lower back, bracing her against him as he thrusts his fingers inside her with increasing vigor. Slowly, he lowers his head down towards her, first just breathing against where her shoulder meets her neck, and then slowly starting to suck her skin, leaving hickies behind. He feels her breath hitch with each kiss he leaves behind, and she's now leaning into him to the point where he's almost entirely supporting her. 

He slides in a third finger, and Edelgard gasps against him. Without thinking, he nips at her neck, just a bit, in response. Her gasp becomes a moan on exhale, and he feels her fingers grip his waist harder, as if anchoring herself.

"Again," she says, voice ragged. "But harder." Dimitri enthusiastically obliges, letting his teeth linger against her throat as he gradually increases his force. He feels her melt against him with each successive bite. He knows she's close, so he bites her shoulder almost as hard as he can, tasting copper as she shudders against him with a moan. He keeps pumping his fingers as she rides out her orgasm, until she pulls away from him. 

He pulls his hand out of her tights, fingers sticky. He glances at her shoulder, and then does a double take as he realizes that he bit her so hard he broke her skin, and the copper he had tasted was her blood. He opens his mouth to say something, apologize, maybe, but Edelgard brushes his lips with her fingers before any words can make it out of his mouth. She pulls away her fingers quickly, though, and examines the blood on them for a moment.

"Hm," she says softly. "I didn't expect you to draw blood." Her tone is neither judgemental nor troubled, speaking in the same mildly amused and curious tone Dimitri would expect from someone receiving a letter they weren't expecting. She then shrugs, but Dimitri sees her wince with the movement. He feels embarrassed, and wants to attempt to apologize again, but stops himself before doing so. She had asked for it, like how he had choked her last time, and wasn't treating it as anything particularly noteworthy now. He won't apologize for something he has no reason to regret, he decides.

"I thought women were supposed to take longer to orgasm than men," he quips instead, letting a soft smile return to his lips. Edelgard doesn't even bother with a half-hearted glare, electing to just roll her eyes as she steadied herself, breathing heavily. They stay like that for a moment, until Edelgard smoothes her skirt and reaches for her phone.

"We may as well make this a regular thing," she says. "It would be more convenient if there was at least some element of planning to these... encounters... of ours." Edelgard pauses, seeming to consider something. "And maybe if we're both getting laid, we'll be able to focus better on our studies," she finally adds. Dimitri can't help but feel a little smug noticing her slip-- the implied confession that she too, was sexually frustrated with him enough for it to affect her studies. Not that he could call her out on it, given his own lack of focus on his school work over the past week.

He considers her suggestion. It made sense, if he intended to keep having sex with her. But planning sex felt worse than succumbing to his lust in unexpected moments like they had done so far. He bites his lip as he thinks. The carnal part of him doesn't want to pass up on the offer she's making, but the guilty part of him is demanding that he at least try and keep himself from committing sin. Edelgard looks at him as if she knows exactly what's going through his head. To his surprise, she doesn't mock or taunt him, but instead sighs in apparent sympathy.

"Clearly, you want this as much as I do," she declares. "This will probably keep happening no matter how much you tell yourself that it's a sin, so you may as well just decide to stop hating yourself for it." She sighs again. It isn't so simple that he can just decide to stop feeling guilty, and she knows it. "Besides," she continues, "maybe letting you fuck me will mean we won't argue as much."

" _Let_ me?" Dimitri finally speaks, slightly incredulous. "If I wanted to be a tease, I could have made you beg for release just now. And last week." Edelgard smiles, the most genuine smile Dimitri had ever seen her direct towards him.

"Then next time make me beg," she challenges with raised eyebrows. Dimitri gives in.

"Okay," he sighs. "This can become... a thing." He pulls out his phone, too, opening his Contacts app before handing it to Edelgard. "We'll definitely need to be able to text each other." Edelgard inputs her number into his phone, then hands it back to him. 

"Anyways," she continues as though they had only been discussing the weather, "Otto von Bismarck. I did some cursory searches of the library database during another class today and was able to find a couple of books that I think will be our best resources." She pulls up a memo on her phone, and copies some of the call numbers written there onto a piece of paper. "Why don't you go find these books, and I'll grab the others. We can then each go through them and mark relevant information we'll need, and then share it with each other once we're done." She hands him the paper she had written the call numbers on. "Originally my plan was to go through some of the chapters together this afternoon. But I don't think we really have time to do that anymore." 

Dimitri nods without arguing, taking the paper from her. He _had_ agreed to be less combative, after all. If there was one thing he could depend on Edelgard for, it would be her dedication to and proficiency in her studies. The books she had found would almost certainly be all they needed to use as sources.

"Okay," he says. "I'll do that then."

"Good." Dimitri walks towards the door of the study room. He places his hand on the handle before turning back towards Edelgard.

"See you later, then," he says with a shrug as he leaves. 

–––––-––––––––––  
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After eating dinner in the dining hall, Dimitri returns to his room, and opens the book he had checked out from the library for his and Edelgard's project. He skims to what seem like the most important chapters having to do with Otto von Bismarck, and starts carefully reading and taking notes. Eventually, his focus is interrupted by the ding of his phone receiving a message. He picks it up and unlocks it, reading the texts he had just gotten from Edelgard, and then responding.

**Edelgard:** So I was thinking that we should probably lay out some ground rules.

**Dimitri:** for hooking up?

**Edelgard:** Yes.

**Dimitri:** ok

**Edelgard:** Condoms are required if your penis is going anywhere near my vagina.  
**Edelgard:** This is non-negotioable

**Dimitri:** im not arguing, i think thats a good idea

**Edelgard:** Good.  
**Edelgard:** I like it rough but I am NOT down for surprise anal. I'm not saying it's completely off the table, but we have to actually talk about it directly beforehand.  
**Edelgard:** Also. No humiliation. Hit me, choke me, call me a bitch, make me submit, but do not try and embarrass or shame me.

**Dimitri:** i wont  
**Dimitri:** the humiliation thing. i wont do that

**Edelgard:** Good.

Dimitri sets down his phone. He shivers a bit from the realization that this is really happening. He contemplates messaging Edelgard again. She had laid down her ground rules, but he wondered if it were okay for him to set boundaries too. He would usually be the dominant one, after all. Probably. After a moment's hesitation, he decides to go ahead. She probably wouldn't think poorly of him. Probably.

**Dimitri:** i dont mind if ur rough back with me but pls dont hurt my balls  
**Dimitri:** or my penis  
**Dimitri:** i once accidentally sat on my balls and it made me want to die. i dont know how u do it

**Edelgard:** You did notice that I don't have testicles, right?

**Dimitri:** no, like the whole pain thing in general. how ur into it instead of it just killing the mood for u  
**Edelgard:** Oh. I don't know, it just seems to be how my body reacts. I won't be too rough on you, though.

**Dimitri:** ok is that all then? i gotta get back to studying

**Edelgard:** Just one last thing. Don't piss or shit on me. Or force me to. I might actually kick you in the balls if you do.

**Dimitri:** ew gross

**Dimitri:** yea i am not abot that dw  
**Dimitri:** *about

As Dimitri goes back to his studying, he find himself feeling less guilty already. It was a bit relieving, just talking about this whole thing with Edelgard. Getting further confirmation that he was actually making sex better for her when he hurt her. He finds himself already anticipating their next hook-up. First, though, he had to do his share of the work for their assignment together. 

He's able to make some good progress in the book Edelgard had found for him, and already has a page full of meticulously written notes he's gathered from his reading. He glances at his phone again. Edelgard hadn't texted him again. He wonders if she's still awake. She probably is. It's not even midnight yet. Dimitri is itching to talk to her again, though he struggles to think of an excuse to do so. Eventually, he thinks of something else they both have in common.

**Dimitri:** do u wonder what our mom would think of this whole thing?

Edelgard's response comes a few minutes later. Dimitri jolts when his phone dings, even though he had been waiting on her reply.

**Edelgard:** I wouldn't know.  
**Edelgard:** You were the one she raised.  
**Edelgard:** I'm going to bed now.

Dimitri frowns. She suddenly feels colder towards him, though nothing in her tone seems to be hostile outright. He feels guilty, though a bit confused. Maybe she was just tired. Or didn't like it when he messaged her without a real reason. Whatever. He shakes his head a bit. That was her problem. He sets his phone back down on his desk and returns to his studying. He needs to get through the next chapter before he can let himself sleep.


	5. Blazing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edelgard POV

**Dimitri:** do u wonder what our mom would think of this whole thing?

Edelgard stares at the message from Dimitri. _Did he really just--_ Edelgard feels a bitter laugh rise in her throat. _Our_ mom. The mother that had given up all rights and custody to her in her divorce from her father, when Edelgard was two years old. The mother that moved across the country to marry Dimitri's father before Edelgard had turned four. The mother that she got maybe one letter a year from, before she died. Dimitri was seriously asking her what he thought his mom would think of them having sex? That was how it was, after all. She was more _his_ mom than she had ever been Edelgard's.

Edelgard scowls, typing out a response. He probably hadn't even thought before asking her that question. It wasn't his fault that he was always so self-centered. Ok, maybe that was his fault. But the odds still were that he likely hadn't intended to be malicious, and was instead just oblivious. 

**Edelgard:** I wouldn't know.  
**Edelgard:** You were the one she raised.

Regardless of how Dimitri had intended his question, Edelgard still doesn't want to get drawn into that conversation right now. She has to finish her math homework. Though it would be easier to block this line of conversation by telling him that she was going to sleep.

**Edelgard:** I'm going to bed now.

She sets aside her phone and doesn't look at it again, going back to her math homework for another hour before heading to bed.

–––––-––––––––––  
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Edelgard finds herself ignoring Dimitri for the next few days. He hasn't texted her again, and their assignment isn't due immediately. She had wanted to get a head start on it to finish it early, but she rationalizes that they both need a few days to review the books they had checked out. Once or twice, she can see Dimitri move as if he was going to walk up to her to talk with her, but she immediately turns around and leaves before he can get near her. Another time, she notices Dimitri looking at her from across the room, probably trying to get her attention, but she ignores him then, too.

Edelgard knows that she's maybe being a bit unfair to Dimitri, but her heart twists whenever she remembers how he had flung her mother right in her face. Even if he hadn't meant to hurt her, she still didn't want to talk to him right now.

"Yo, Edelgard." Claude waves in front of her face, interrupting her train of thought. She was in the library supposedly studying, but apparently her mind had drifted off towards Dimitri again.

"Hello Claude," she answers carefully. It wasn't like Claude to seek her out. "No need to be so worried, princess," he chuckles at her. Edelgard frowns. He _knows_ that she hates that nickname.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew you were invited to my Halloween party tomorrow night," Claude continues breezily. "It starts at seven and is going to be in the basement of the Indech building. No entry without a costume, though." Edelgard raises her eyebrows.

"The Indech building? Are you sure you have permission for that?" Claude waves off her concerns. "Course I do," he assures. "Professor Cassagranda was very supportive when I asked her if she would be the sponsor for the event." Edelgard suddenly understands.

"I see," she says, folding her arms. "I don't suppose you'll tell me what exactly it is that you're holding over her head?" It was an open secret that Professor Cassagranda was practically a functioning alcoholic, who often traded her students' discretion for leniency in enforcing certain rules the Church wanted upheld.

"Nope," Claude answers with a grin. "I _can_ tell you that she's going to be heading to bed early that night, though."

"I suppose I'll have to go to your party, then," she sighs. "I'm hardly a stickler for the rules but it wouldn't be good if things got out of hand." Claude holds a hand against his heart in feigned shock.

"Edelgard! Are you implying that I can't handle a simple Halloween party? I may have stacked the deck a bit with the Professor, but she wouldn't let me host a party like this if she wasn't confident in my ability to manage it on my own." Edelgard sighs again.

"I suppose if there's one thing about you I can count on, it's your instinct for self-preservation. If this party becomes a scandal, you're going to be in hot water with the Headmistress." Claude just smiles at her.

"See you then," he calls as he walks away from where she was sitting. "And don't forget that costume!"

–––––-––––––––––  
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It's difficult for Edelgard to decide on a suitable costume, but with Dorothea's help, she eventually settles on a large floppy black witch hat paired with a black turtleneck sweater and black skirt. Simple, not too flashy or inconvenient, yet there was no way Claude could say that she isn't wearing a costume. She glances towards Dorothea as they head down the stairs to the Indech building's basement. Dorothea was going as a vampire, and had spent quite a while sitting at her mirror applying makeup to complete her costume, and it looked amazing.

"Hey Dorothea! Nice costume! You too, Edelgard!" Hilda says energetically. She appears to be the bouncer, the door to the main room between her and a large box with various masks and other accessories in an unorganized pile within. Her costume-- if it was indeed a costume-- seemed to be an incredibly short black dress with a pink ribbon around the waist, and some sort of tall headband on her head.

"Why thank you," Dorothea grins, flashing her fake fangs at Hilda. 

"Ooh, that's so cool!" Hilda effuses. "You are going to _love_ Annette's costume, she totally went all out." Edelgard clears her throat, searching for something to add to the conversation.

"What are you supposed to be dressed up as?" she asks. _Oops_ , she thinks. That came out more accusatory than she had intended. Luckily Hilda seems to take it in stride.

"I'm a mouse," Hilda replies with a roll of her eyes. She points towards her headband, which Edelgard can now tell is supposed to be mouse ears. "Duh."

"Anyways!" Dorothea interjects before the two of them can start arguing, "It's good to see you Hilda. We can go inside, right?" Hilda huffs a bit, but ascents and lets them through. 

The party, while not in full swing, seems to be lively enough. Most of the people already there were from the Golden Deer house, though Edelgard sees Ashe and another, younger Blue Lion with incredible zombie make-up-- or at least, Edelgard hopes it's make-up-- lingering by the ping pong table. Claude gives her a grin and a wave when he sees her. He appears to be dressed as a pirate. The look suits him, Edelgard thinks. 

"Edelgard!" Her train of thought is interrupted from behind her by a familiar voice.

 _Oh no_ , Edelgard thinks. _Not Constance._ Unfortunately for Edelgard, it did indeed appear to be Constance waving her down. She was wearing some kind of black wig with orange horns, and had gray facepaint on. 

"Oho, so it was you!" Constance exclaims one she reaches Edelgard and Dorothea. "What do you think of my costume?" she asks. Edelgard squints at Constance, trying to see if there was something more to her costume than the wig and face paint. She notices that she's wearing fake glasses, but that's it. 

"It's ah," she hems for a bit, trying to think of something suitable to say. It was generally not worth it to upset Constance if she could avoid it. "It's nice, I guess," she concludes, then winces at herself internally. She definitely could have come up with something better. Constance sniffs in a patronizing manner.

"I see how it is, then," she declares haughtily. "Have a good evening, Edelgard." With that, she twirls away and returns to the corner of the room where Edelgard can see the other anime club members huddling. Edelgard shakes her head. Constance was an enigma, and trying to plumb the depths of her thought process always ended fruitlessly for Edelgard.

"How about we go check out the food," she suggests to Dorothea, who readily agrees. They pass by Lorenz in a toga, who seems to be trying to cajole the underclassmen into role-playing with him. 

"Now, since I'm Caesar," they hear him assert. "One of you go fetch me something to drink. Chop chop!"

"Oh, you're Caesar?" Dorothea interrupts him with a plastered-on smile. "I'll be Brutus. We just need the knives now!" Lorenz pales. 

"Ah, Dorothea," he stammers nervously. "That won't be necessary. I was just joking with the underclassmen. Having a laugh."

"Too bad," Dorothea sighs dramatically. "I would have been a perfect Brutus." Edelgard tugs Dorothea away before she and Lorenz can escalate their verbal sparring further. She laughs though, once they're out of his earshot.

"He really should have thought that through more," Dorothea says. "I mean he was practically begging for that, right?" 

"Mm," Edelgard assents. "Not like Lorenz is really used to thinking, though." They laugh again. "Ooh, cupcakes," she says as they arrive at the snack table. It's been laid out with a wide assortment of sweets, from brownies to bowls of skittles and candy corn. 

"I recommend the ones decorated like pumpkins." Lysithea appears next to them, her paper plate piled high with treats. "Those are the chocolate ones."

"Noted," Edelgard says gratefully. She tilts her head quizzically as she takes in Lysithea's blue jeans and plain purple shirt. "Hilda let you in without a costume?" she asks. Lysithea smirks.

"I'm a serial killer," she dead-pans. "They look just like everybody else." Edelgard chuckles. 

"Then you have the scariest costume here," she jests lightly. Lysithea shrugs, taking a bite out of one of the cookies piled on her plate.

"There are some more desserts in the back," she says through a mouthful of cookie. "So take as much as you want. I made Claude promise he wouldn't run out." Lysithea swallows. "It's good to see you," she says before walking away. Edelgard just nods and gives her a small wave goodbye. 

She and Dorothea mill about the room, making small talk with the other party-goers as more people filter in. Ferdinand arrives in an elaborate werewolf get-up, preening himself in front of her until she's sufficiently fed his ego. Petra comes in and Dorothea goes to chat with her, leaving Edelgard by herself for a few minutes. She half-heartedly listens to Ashe explain how he is not Robin Hood, actually, and is instead some superhero with an extensive comic book history. Ignatz walks by and she stops him to compliment his rendition of _The Scream_ that makes up his costume. The time passes pleasantly, until a certain group's arrival.

"The party don't start 'til _I_ walk in," Sylvain yells as he bursts through the door. He's wearing a... pikachu onesie? Ingrid, dressed like an angel and rolling her eyes, follows him inside. Felix is next with a scowl. His "costume" appears to just be his practice armor from kendo. Lastly, Dedue and Dimitri come through the door behind their friends. Dimitri is wearing a t-shirt with a Superman logo, and Dedue has a similar Batman t-shirt. Though it looks like Hilda had forced a flimsy paper Batman mask onto him as well.

Edelgard groans to herself. She knew that Dimitri was probably going to show up to the party too, but as time had passed without him arriving, she had begun to hope that maybe she wouldn't have to deal with him tonight after all. It wasn't _fair_ , that he manager to pull off a casual t-shirt and jeans so well, either. His shirt fits closer to his body than his school uniform usually does, accentuating his muscular form.

 _No_ , she thinks. _I can_ not _be horny for him tonight while I'm still mad at him._ It's this moment that Dorothea walks back over, now that her conversation with Petra seems to have concluded. She nudges Edelgard with her elbow.

"Go get him, Edie." Edelgard folds her arms. She did not want to play this game with Dorothea tonight.

"No," she scowls. "And I don't even know what you're talking about," she adds, too late. 

"Don't play dumb, Edie," Dorothea says. "I have eyes too, you know. And Dimitri is looking like a snack tonight."

"Lucky for me, I've already filled up on cupcakes," Edelgard quips back. Dorothea sighs.

"Fine, have it your way," she says, throwing her hands up in mock surrender. "But you've been on edge the past few days and this could be the perfect opportunity for you to have some fun, if you know what I mean." Edelgard grits her teeth. She knows exactly what Dorothea means, but what Dorothea doesn't know is that she's been on edge precisely because of Dimitri. 

Edelgard tries to ignore Dimitri as best she can. It's difficult to succeed when he's always trailing behind Sylvain, who seems to have made it his mission to be the life of the party everywhere at once. As the party goes on, it becomes nearly unbearable. She finally breaks when he accidentally bumps into her as she weaves her way through the dance floor, looking for Claude or Lysithea to let them know that the snack table was out of sugar cookies.

"Watch it!" she snaps at him. "You're like a boar in a china shop." She scowls. He _was_ dancing a bit clumsily, but it was mostly Edelgard's built-up annoyance at him that caused her to be so harsh. Not that she had to admit that to him right now. 

"Sorry," he apologizes meekly. Edelgard continues past him, but stops and whirls around when she realizes that he's following her. 

"What?" she hisses at him. 

"Huh?" he replies dumbly.

"Why are you following me. What do you want?" 

"I'm not following you," Dimitri frowns. Edelgard bites her tongue to keep herself from interrupting him with a scoff. "I just wanted to go play ping pong." She glances back forward, and sure enough, the ping pong table is straight ahead. Claude and Caspar are engrossed in a face-off. Great. She _still_ couldn't be rid of him.

"I was looking for Claude," she tells him as she starts walking again towards the ping pong table. It wouldn't do to have him think that _she_ wasfollowing _him_ now. Dimitri trails behind her.

"Claude," she calls out as she strides towards him. "I thought you would want to know that the snack table is out of sugar cookies."

"Oh, is it," he answers, looking towards her and missing the serve that Caspar had just tossed his way.

"Aw yea, I win!" Caspar cheers.

"I should remedy that," Claude continues. "Or else Lysithea will be very angry with me. Here, you play," he says, handing her his ping pong paddle. Edelgard blinks. She almost turns to offer to let someone else play, until she sees that Dimitri has traded spots with Caspar, who is now bounding off with Linhardt and his younger sister Fleche in tow. Dimitri raises his eyes in a challenge.

"Wanna go?" he taunts.

"You're on," she replies, slamming the ping pong ball towards his side of the table. He has to practically leap to return the serve.

Soon, they're trading ferocious swings, their battle becoming verbal as well as ping pong.

"What's the matter, Edelgard?" Dimitri taunts as he wins his third point, though he's only ahead of her by one point now. "Need me to go easy on you?" That definitely pisses Edelgard off. She almost loses another point in her anger, sending a sloppy volley towards him. Exactly what he wanted. He was so infuriating.

"Watch out behind you!" she calls towards him, changing her expression and tone to one that sounds genuinely fearful. Without thinking, Dimitri turns around to see what she's talking about.

It was a feint. She takes the opportunity to slam the ping pong ball across the table. It bounces against his back, winning her a point. Dimitri whips back around.

"You," he sputters. "You motherfucker! That's cheating!" he shouts at her. Edelgard smirks. It had been a low move, but it was satisfying watching him rage at her. He was so easy to poke at, to prod.

"Then score another point," she yells back at him. "Unless you think you can't," she finishes, unable to resist another dig at him.

"Get a room, you two!" Edelgard whips around, furious, looking for the source of the comment. Hilda waves and gives her a shit-eating grin. When had she arrived to watch them play? When had any of the people gathered around the ping pong table shown up? "I know you get horny when you're angry, Edelgard!" she continues. Edelgard feels blood rush to her head, blocking out rational thought for a moment.

"You shut the fu--"

"Mind your own bus--"

She and Dimitri had started yelling at Hilda at the same time. His face is as red as a tomato, and Edelgard doubts that her face is any different. The music still plays in the background, but all conversations had stopped to watch the three of them. Edelgard realizes that maybe they had been drawing attention for a while.

"Aw yeah, woo hoo!" Sylvain calls from across the room, climbing on top of a table. He sensually unzips his pikachu onesie as he dances, revealing a bright pink crop top underneath. "Turn up that music!" Everyone remains bewildered for a moment, but quickly the buzz of chatter fills the room again as Sylvain begins a full-on strip tease of his costume while dancing on top of the table.

"Seriously, though, you two," Claude says, having walked over during Sylvain's distraction. His face is unusually serious. "I'm going to have to ask you guys to leave. We can't have you causing a scene like this." Edelgard remembers what she had told Claude when accepting his invitation to this party. She's not sure her face can burn more than it is right now.

"What?" Dimitri argues. "You're just going to kick us out?"

"Yup," Claude says. "And I know how your promises to play nice with each other usually end up. I'm not going to back down on this. No hard feelings, though. I'll just tell people you guys went to bed early. I know how stressful classes are." Claude is being generous, offering them a graceful way out. Edelgard knows this. It still doesn't make getting kicked out of the party an easier pill to swallow. Not wanting to speak, she just nods at Claude and starts walking towards the exit. She's had enough of the party for tonight anyways.

She looks towards Sylvain's make-shift stage as she crosses the room. He's fully taken off the pikachu onesie, and is twerking in booty shorts that appear to be made out of jean material. Dorothea has begun throwing candy corn over him, and Sylvain is gathering them up like coins. Dorothea glances over towards her, and Edelgard sees her raise her eyebrows before offering a sympathetic look. Edelgard quickly glances away. She just wants to be out of here already.

The cold air outside feels refreshing on her skin when she steps outside. She pauses a moment, giving herself a short rest from the climb up the stairs out of the basement. She hears Dimitri shortly behind her, and waits for him.

"You didn't have to be so mean," he huffs. Edelgard feels a twinge of guilt.

"I didn't mean for us to get kicked out," she admits. She swallows. The next part was going to be more difficult; she had always had trouble with apologies. "And I'm sorry for blowing up at you."

"Oh," Dimitri seems surprised. "That." He scratches the back of his neck. "I'm sorry too. I got too worked up." They stand outside in silence for a moment, until Edelgard shivers in the cold. Her turtleneck sweater could only hold in so much heat. She has no idea how Dimitri is fine standing next to her in only jeans and a t-shirt.

"Um," he says.

"Yes?"

"Did you want to..." Dimitri trails off before he finishes his question. Edelgard can guess what he was going to ask. She knows her answer.

"Want to go work this tension out of our systems?" She sighs, finishing the thought for him. "Sexually," she clarified, in case Dimitri needs it spelled out for him. Hilda was almost right about the link between her anger and libido. What it really was, was that the more sexually frustrated she was, the more likely she would let her anger or frustration spill out onto other people.

"That, ah, sounds nice," Dimitri coughs. Silence lingers between them again for a moment. "We can go to my room," he says eventually. "Sylvain will likely spend quite a while at the party. There's also a way to get to the girls' dormitory without being seen by using the roofs," he adds. Edelgard considers. One of their dorms would likely be safer than using an empty classroom. There would be hell to pay if they got caught, but she believes him about this apparent secret route. There was no other way to explain that one time she had found Sylvain in nothing but his underwear in a locked, unused room on her floor. He had said something about picking the lock at the time, but she had never entirely believed him.

"Alright," she ascents, and begins walking back in the direction of the boys' dormitory. Dimitri catches up to her in a few seconds, and they walk in silence. When they reach the dorms, Dimitri steps in front of her and puts his hand back behind him in a cautionary gesture.

"Wait here," he says. "I'll see if there's anyone there." He disappears around the corner for a minute, but returns just as quickly. "We're good," he tells her. "Professor Hanneman is sitting by the entry, but he's asleep."

"Are you certain he's asleep?" she asks skeptically. It sounds like a trap. Dimitri nods.

"I waved in his face and quietly asked him if he could answer a question I had about today's lecture. He only mumbled something incoherent." Edelgard bites her lip. She knows that with Coach Catherine on door duty for the girls' dormitory tonight, this was their best option.

"Okay," she says. "Let's go before he wakes up." Carefully, they sneak past him and go down the hallway designated for the fourth year Blue Lions. Edelgard is glad that most of the other students are at Claude's party. They slip inside his room without incident. Edelgard starts pulling her turtleneck over her head, but is interrupted by Dimitri pulling her in for a kiss.

"Let me take off my clothes first," she tells him.

"I don't want to wait," he says. God, he doesn't even know how he affects her. The need for him against her is like an itch under her skin. 

"Just give me a moment," she says. She wants him now, but she knows it will be longer until her gratification if she doesn't get naked as soon as possible. She wiggles out of her skirt, dropping it on the floor without bothering to fold it like she usually would. Her top and underwear fall on top of it. Dimitri is pulling off his shirt, too, and shaking off his jeans. As soon as he's only in his boxers, he picks her up and sets her on his bed. 

They kiss each other like it's a competition to be won, aggressive and intense. His hands on her breasts, playing with her nipples. She moans into his mouth. He pinches harder. God, how was he already so in tune with her body? The fire inside her blazes, scorching her from the inside out. She needs more.

"Get on with it," she gasps against him. She knows he's hardly even teasing her, but she's too impatient for drawn out foreplay tonight. Dimitri's sudden absence against her almost hurts, but seeing that he's unwrapping a condom keeps her from breaking. Without thinking, her hands are against her clit, rubbing for a modicum of relief. Dimitri, condom applied, is back over and grabs both of her hands and holds them tight in his grasp.

"Mine," is all he says, and fuck, Edelgard needs him inside her _now_. Fortunately, he seems to read her mind, and is parting her labia and entering her before she can ask.

"Ah," Edelgard moans. "As hard as you can." She can't even find the focus to think in sentences anymore, she's so aroused. Dimitri obliges her, beginning to thrust back and forth inside her. Yes. She needs this. His hands are still holding hers. He pushes her down, pinning her against his bed as he leans over her, so close that their faces almost touch.

"Beg," he tells her. "Beg me to let you orgasm." Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. She needs release, desperately. But she still hesitates, not wanting to have to beg for it. Until he stops moving. "I said you'll have to beg, he says, his cock buried deep inside her but _not fucking moving_.

"Please, Dimitri," she gasps. "Please make me cum." Satisfied, Dimitri starts moving his hips again, but at a slower pace. It seems she would have to beg harder. "God, please, Dimitri," she whines. "I'm so close already." He speeds up more, his movements becoming marginally more frantic. She's so close to the edge, pinned against his mattress and his cock between her legs. "I need you to make me--"

There it is. The heat, the tension, inside her spills over, flooding her body. She rides the waves of her orgasm until they disappear, leaving her gasping for air underneath Dimitri. He's stopped fucking her, also breathing raggedly. Oh, she realizes. She hadn't even noticed him orgasm, her own being so intense. He withdraws his cock from inside her, and steps away, removing the condom. Edelgard stays where she is, breathing raggedly on top of his mattress. Her head bumps against the wall, and she shifts sideways, lying in his bed more comfortably.

She feels Dimitri get back on his bed after throwing the used condom away. He seems to lean away from her, as if he was scared to touch her gently after roughing her up earlier. Edelgard decides to set aside her inhibitions for the moment, and leans back against him, the back of her head bumping against his bare chest. Dimitri freezes up, of course. The tension in his body makes it uncomfortable to lay against him. Before she can point it out, though, he speaks.

"Are you sure this is okay?" he asks haltingly. Edelgard sighs. It was like all his previous boldness had evaporated.

"Shut up," she says in a tone more serious sounding than she intends. Edelgard frowns to herself. "Please." She adds in a softer tone. Thankfully, he does relax against her with that. After a minute, he even reaches an arm around over her to hold her. He moves lightly, in a way that suggests that any resistance to his movements would have him retreating immediately. Edelgard doesn't resist, and leans into him more when his arm settles around her.

Guilt tugs at her again. Dimitri could be irritating and oblivious, but he was sweet too. He hadn't really deserved the way she had treated him over the past few days. Apologizing has always been difficult for her, but Edelgard knows she should own up to her behavior.

"I'm sorry for being cold to you lately," she tells him with a sigh, breaking the quiet that had settled over them. She should probably explain, at least a little bit. "When you asked me about your-- our mother, it felt like you were taunting me. The only time I can actually remember ever spending with her was that one Christmas that my uncle brought me to your house. But she was still so busy, helping taking care of his-- my uncle's-- end-of-life affairs, and then there was the funeral, and then my father arrived and dragged me away before I could even really spend time with her." Edelgard stops before her voice cracks, feeling tears already forming in her eyes. She starts blinking rapidly to hold them in, relieved that Dimitri couldn't see her face. 

"I'm sorry," she hears Dimitri breathe against her. "I should have realized." It's gratifying, more than she expected, to hear Dimitri acknowledge her pain. She just nods, not trusting her voice to speak again quite yet. Dimitri doesn't say anything else, just holding her until she gathers her composure again.

"It's okay," she eventually says softly. For some reason, she wants to tell Dimitri more. About her relationship with her mother, what it was like after her parents' divorce. "My father is a serial monogamist," she continues quietly. "Perpetually marring and divorcing new women. I don't think he's had a marriage last longer than five years, honestly. It was ridiculous, how he didn't believe in using birth control but ignored the Church's formal stance on divorce." She's getting a bit off track, she realizes. "Anyways, I have a lot of siblings. Ten of them. It was a constant competition for my father's attention. He had managed to keep primary custody for most of us, but I was the only one he had full custody over, after my mother signed all of her rights to see me away."

"That wasn't right," Dimitri interjects, unable to stop himself. Edelgard can't see his face, but she knows that he's frowning. "She shouldn't have done that."

"I can't really blame her for not wanting to have to deal with my father ever again," she sighs in response. "And I knew that their divorce was his fault, really. But when I learned that she had married your father and moved out of state, I finally started feeling mad at her, too." Edelgard pauses. The next part, what she had been providing context for until now, was going to be difficult to say out loud.

"For a while," she whispers softly, so quiet that she's not even certain that Dimitri can hear her, "I blamed you for taking her away, too." Dimitri doesn't respond, and Edelgard wonders if he had heard her. She didn't think she could say it again. But then, she feels Dimitri pull her closer, tightening his embrace around her.

"I have a confession to make too," he replies quietly. Edelgard furrows her eyebrows in confusion. Of all the responses he could have given to her admitting that she hated him as a kid while they spooned after sex, that was not one she had anticipated.

"When my parents died-- when my father and step-mother were in that car crash-- I blamed it on you for the longest time." Edelgard is baffled. Her? His parents' deaths-- Her own mother's death-- blamed on her? How on earth had he justified that to himself?

"My father was driving the car," he continues, before Edelgard can voice any of the questions suddenly whirling around in her head. "But he was distracted, arguing with my step-mother. It was a few months after that Christmas you shared with us. Apparently Father had no idea that she had a child in her previous marriage."

"A few months later? Why were they still arguing about it that long afterwards?" Edelgard interrupts before she can stop herself. Dimitri is quiet. It must be hard, too, for him to talk about his parents.

"I'm not certain," he finally says. Edelgard senses that he's hedging the truth, but she won't push him on it. Their current intimacy felt fragile, like the slightest wrong move from either of them would shatter this delicate moment. "But regardless," he continues, "It was easier for me to blame you, in the wake of the accident, than to acknowledge any faults in my parents. If only you hadn't shown up, I thought, then we would still be living as a happy family together." Edelgard doesn't speak. How can she respond to that? He was right, after all, in a way.

"I was wrong of course," Dimitri adds after a moment's pause. "But I didn't realize that for a while. It was a dark era of my life." He sounds so solemn and serious. Dimitri seems to realize that too, and lightens his tone. "Rodrigue-- Felix's father-- was like a second father to me. And the Church helped a lot. Gave me structure, helped me let go of my anger, let me find peace with my parents being gone."

Edelgard notices that he doesn't mention heaven. She would have thought that expecting to see his parents in the afterlife would have also given him comfort. She decides to just file that away in her mind, to think about later. Right now, she was starting to have had enough of such heavy conversation. She twists around so she's facing Dimitri. His eyes immediately flicker towards her bare breasts, before meeting her gaze. 

"I think we've shared enough depressing stories about our childhoods for tonight," she tells him, swinging one of her legs over his and trailing a hand down his chest. Luckily, Dimitri not only understands what she's implying, but seems to reciprocate her desire as well. She can feel his cock start to stiffen up again against her thigh as she leans in to kiss him. He shifts so he's sitting up, and pulls Edelgard onto his lap. 

They stay that way for a while, trading light kisses that become deeper and more aggressive. He grasps her waist, biting at her lip as he grinds against her. Edelgard feels herself melting at his touch. God, they had just fucked but she already wants him again. Everywhere he touches her lights her on fire. When he pulls back, Edelgard trails after him with a soft whine. 

"Do you remember what you said last time?" He murmurs against her lips. Edelgard shakes her head. She could remember if she tries, but she doesn't want to pull her mind away from this. 

"Tell me," she breathes back to him.

"You said if I got you off with my fingers, that you would let me go down on you," he answers. Now she remembers. Yes, she had said that. 

"Please do," she whispers against him. She can already feel heat coiling between her legs at the thought. When Dimitri pushes her down against the mattress, she feels herself getting wetter already. He looks down at her with a sly smile she knows by now means that he's letting himself indulge in his more intense sexual urges.

"Open your legs," he commands her. "Like a good girl." Normally, Edelgard would resist a bit, force him to work more to get her to submit. But the way the order comes out almost like a growl haas her spreading her legs without a second thought. Her heart beats faster as she watches him look over her, knowing he can see how wet she already is. She notices some hesitation in his demeanor, though, and remembers that she is his first sexual partner.

"Just start licking, kissing, whatever," she tells him. "I'll let you know if something isn't working. Just don't bite. That would be too much even for me." Dimitri nods, moving his head down towards her. He starts hesitantly, but Edelgard encourages him with quiet gasps and moans when he moves his tongue against her clit, and he begins to move more confidently. It feels incredible. She clutches the sheets on his mattress in her fists, holding on as Dimitri brought her to the edge. This time, at least, he wasn't going to make her beg.

"Ah, just like that," she encourages him when he swirls his tongue around her clit just right. He continues with gutso, and Edelgard feels herself coming hard against his face. Dimitri looks at her eagerly as she recovers from her second orgasm of the night. She realizes that he probably wants to know how he did, and notices his erection. 

"Mmm, good job," she tells him. "Now let me take care of that for you," she continues reaching for his cock. Yet he waves her away. She frowns. "I insist," she says. He relents, letting her pump her hand up and down his cock.

"Hmm," she hums. Their current positions are awkward for this. She crawls around behind him so that her bare chest is pressed against his back. She leans against him as she resumes jerking him off. She leans against him further, feeling his heartbeat pound faster. Dimitri isn't too vocal, but she knows he's close when his hips start to thrust into her hand. She kisses his neck from behind, sucking at his pulse point. That seems to do it, and he's ejaculating on his sheets.

Edelgard keeps her hold on him for another moment before letting go. It's getting late. She should be getting back to her room. Pushing herself off of Dimitri's bed, she walks over to where she had placed her clothes, and starts getting dressed. She puts the witch hat on again, too, since she hadn't brought a bag or anything with her to the party. She suspects that she'll be better off with both hands free when using Sylvain's secret route to the girls' dorms. She turns towards Dimitri, who seems to have been watching her the whole time.

"So," she begins, adjusting her sleeves. "Are you going to show me this secret passageway?" Dimitri jolts, apparently not fully realizing that Edelgard was looking back at him.

"It's hardly a passageway," he says. "There's a ledge outside the window," he nods towards the window between his and Sylvain's beds before continuing. "It connects to a roof where you walk around the wall, and then use the ledge outside the girls' dorms' windows to get where you need to go." Edelgard nods. "Oh, I forgot, though," Dimitri says, suddenly looking a bit apprehensive. "The window to the room you're going to enter needs to be unlocked. I've never actually gone to a girl's room that way before-- I only ever really used that route when Sylvain was showing it to me after he discovered it our freshman year."

"It's fine," Edelgard replies. "I'll text Dorothea."

**Edelgard:** Are you back at our room yet?

**Dorothea:** nah I could have sliced the sexual tension between you and dimitri with a butter knife  
**Dorothea:** wanted to give you guys some space if you needed it ;)

**Edelgard:** We used his room

**Dorothea:** :o  
**Dorothea:** congrats!

**Edelgard:** Anyways. Apparently there's a way to get back to the girls dorms across the roof, but the window needs to be unlocked.  
**Edelgard:** Would you be willing to unlock our window when you get back from Claude's party? I'd rather not take my chances being seen leaving the boys dorms.

**Dorothea:** ye sure  
**Dorothea:** i actually already left, been chillin w petra in her room  
**Dorothea:** made the mistake of challenging her at smash bros  
**Dorothea:** do you know how demoralizing it is to get your ass handed to you by piranha plant  
**Dorothea:** i thought she was fucking with me. then she three stocked me lmao  
**Dorothea:** anyways im heading over now so itll be open by the time you get here

**Edelgard:** Thanks. I'll be there in a bit  
**Edelgard:** You're the best

**Dorothea:** <3

Edelgard looks back up from her phone and at Dimitri again, who was still lying naked in his bed and looking at her. His cheeks go pink when he realizes that he's been caught staring at her. Edelgard decides to head him off before he can start blustering or apologizing.

"Dorothea's going to open my window," she tells him, putting her phone in her jacket pocket. She walks over to his window, fiddling with the latches. It's the same type of window as in her dorm, but it's much easier to snap back the latches and pushes it slightly open. Likely from how often it's used. She hears Dimitri get off his bed and stand next to her.

"Here," he says, placing his hands over hers and lifting the rest of the window open effortlessly. His toned arms were around her, almost as in an embrace. Edelgard can feel the tips of ears turn slightly pink. She felt lucky that her hair was covering her ears. She had just fucked him-- twice-- why was she getting blushy now, of all times? Ridiculous. 

"Thanks," she says, fortunately able to keep her voice from betraying any sort of sudden nervousness at his close presence. She hefts her leg up over the windowsill, deftly climbing out the window and onto the shallow ledge below. 

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Dimitri asks, a look of concern on his face as he seems to realize how precarious her position is. Edelgard bites back a small smile she can feel forming at her lips.

"A bit too late to have second thoughts, I think," she tells him with a confidence she doesn't quite feel. "I'll be fine. It's just that roof there, right?" she says with a nod of her head towards a flatter, safer roof to walk on, a meter or two away from where she was currently standing. Dimitri nods. She begins to sidle across, grateful for the large bricks and deep mortar joints that formed the outside wall of the boys' dormitory-- and convenient places to hold onto, as though she were rock climbing horizontally. It's not even like she's at that much risk of slipping, when she has both feet firmly on a ledge, but it helps her feel less nervous. 

Eventually, she reaches the other roof, and lets out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding. Her heart was also beating faster than she had realized. Edelgard was relieved that she had been able to focus on getting across, and hadn't frozen up in the middle. She looks back towards Dimitri's window, and gives him a smile and a wave when she sees that he had clearly been watching her the whole time, worried.

"Just walk around the other side," he calls out towards her. "The ledge underneath the girls' dorm windows is wider, but you'll have to crouch to avoid being seen, until you get to your room." His brows furrow. "Your room is on this same floor, right?"

"Yes, I'll be fine," she calls back with a wave of her hand. "I wouldn't have stepped out of that window if I hadn't thought of that already."

"Oh, okay." Dimitri clearly is torn with the urge to keep anxiously watching her, but she's almost out of his sight. "Text me when you make it back, just in case something happens," he finally decides to say. Edelgard gives him a thumbs up, and he closes his window again. 

It's a short walk across the roof, and then she eases herself onto the adjacent ledge connected to the girls' dormitory. Remembering Dimitri's advice, she crouches just before reaching the first window she has to get past. Crawling across the ledge is more difficult than walking, but it's still better than getting caught. She counts each window as she passes them, until she reaches the one she thinks is her and Dorothea's.

Slowly, she nudges the window with her fingers, seeing if it was unlocked. It was. Edelgard decides to risk it. If it wasn't her room, it was probably one of their neighbors, and none of them were the type to call for a teacher to report her-- at least not before letting her explain. She stands up, lifting the window up more, and then freezes when the frame squeaks with disuse. 

"There you are, Edie!" Edelgard jolts, almost dropping the window she had half-opened.

"Dorothea!" she exclaims, relieved but also a bit annoyed. "You scared the shit out of me."

"Oops." Dorothea gives her an apologetic look. "Here, I'll make it up to you," she says, lifting the rest of the window up for Edelgard, and then grabs Edelgard's forearms as Edelgard lifts one of her feet into the room. She pulls, and Edelgard tumbles inside. 

"Thank you, Dorothea," she says breathlessly on the floor, pushing her hair out of her eyes. 

"No problem," Dorothea replies. "But you have _got_ to fill me in."

"Fill you in on what?" Edelgard asks as she picks herself up off the floor where she had landed. Dorothea gives her a reproachful look.

"You and Dimitri? Are you guys like, a thing, now? Did you guys plan to leave the party together? Is his dick as big as I think it is?" Edelgard laughs at Dorothea's last query.

"Not really, not initially, and yes, probably," she replies to Dorothea's barrage of questions in order. "I don't know how big you think his dick is, but I am quite satisfied with it. Him. Sexually. We didn't plan tonight's... tryst, and our arguing was genuine, but getting kicked out by Claude brought us to our senses and we decided to put our time and energy to better use. And we're doing more of like a friends-with-benefits kind of thing, I think." Dorothea nods as Edelgard answers.

"Damn, y'all are friends already?" she teases with a smile. "You guys are moving faster than a pair of lesbians with an extra u-haul lying around." Edelgard laughs again. 

"I must admit, this arrangement is quite preferable to our previous mutual antagonism," she confesses lightly. 

"You're telling me," Dorothea replies. "I don't think I've seen you in such a consistent good mood since the soccer team won the spring tournament last year." She flops onto her bed with a sigh. "I need to get laid again too if it's that much of a mood-lifter." Edelgard feels her ears start to burn again. She turns away, and the weight of her phone in her jacket pocket reminds her of her promise to Dimitri. She types quickly as she thinks of a response to Dorothea.

**Edelgard:** Made it back fine.

**Dimitri:** thx

"I hear Constance is still single," she finally says to Dorothea with a sly smile, who is still lying on her bed in a dramatic pose. She lifts her head up to look at Edie and wrinkles her nose.

"Ugh no thanks. I'm not that desperate," she groans. "She's fine as a classmate, but I don't think I'd be able to handle her as a girlfriend. I have no idea how you managed to date her for four entire months." Edelgard chuckles at Dorothea's reaction to her suggestion. 

"Near the end it did feel more like a competition than a relationship," she admits with a sigh. "We just weren't compatible."

"You know, Edie," Dorothea says thoughtfully, turning on her stomach to face Edelgard. "I think you have a type. Constance in what, sophomore year? Hilda the year before that. Ferdinand last year. Dimitri now. Have you ever dated anybody that you weren't always arguing with?" Edelgard leans her head back as she thinks. 

"I think I dated Hubert briefly in middle school," she says, and then frowns as she finished processing all of Dorothea's question. "And Dimitri and I aren't dating."

"You argue with Hubert all the time too," Dorothea scoffs. "You're just good enough friends and respect each other so much that you don't realize that you're arguing." Edelgard considers this. Maybe Dorothea had a point after all. "Wait," Dorothea blurts out. "What do you mean you _think_ you dated Hubert in middle school?"

"Oh. Well, it was ambiguous, you know." Dorothea only raises her eyebrows at her. Clearly, she needed more of an answer than that. Edelgard groans. "It was seventh grade. Hubert was just starting here at Garreg Mach. When he left it kind of felt like maybe we had something romantic going on, but we never talked about it. We were always texting each other, too." Dorothea waits as Edelgard finishes her explanation.

"And you never talked about it?" she asks incredulously when the story stops there. Edelgard knows her ears must be bright red by now.

"No. I didn't want to make any assumptions. I think he didn't want to overstep. But we were like that for a few months before he integrated more here and became friends with Jeritza." Luckily, Edelgard is saved from further interrogation by Dorothea when her phone dings. A text message from Dimitri.

**Dimitri:** wanted to let u know that sylvain kinda found out

**Dimitri:** about our thing  
  
**Edelgard:** Seriously?  
**Dimitri:** sorry!! i didnt tell him tho  
**Dimitri:** apparently he was waiting for an all clear signal before coming back to our dorm after we got kicked out of the party  
**Dimitri:** hes smarter than he looks. and a genuinely good guy when he isnt trying to get in anyones pants

Edelgard doubts that, but she knows that she doesn't have much room to get on Dimitri's case for letting Sylvain find out when Dorothea knew weeks ago. She hopes, though, that Dimitri hadn't just offered up the details to him unprompted.

**Edelgard:** I guess it was too much to hope that our roommates wouldn't find out eventually  
**Edelgard:** Dorothea knows too, by the way. Forgot to mention it earlier. She could tell from the moment I walked back in our room after that first afternoon when you choked me.

Edelgard pauses. She feels like there's something else that she had been meaning to talk to Dimitri about. Their presentation. Right. That was it. They definitely need to get working on that, after the days Edelgard wasted giving him the cold shoulder.

**Edelgard:** Also, have you finished your reading for our assignment? I was thinking that we could compare notes tomorrow and start outlining the structure of our presentation.

**Dimitri:** yup  
**Dimitri:** sounds g  
**Dimitri:** good

There. Everything Dimitri-related was now properly squared away, for the time being. Edelgard is a little surprised at how much of a relief it is to not always be at odds with him. She hadn't realized that amount of stress that weighed on her as a result of their mutual antagonism. She's unsure how long this arrangement that they have will last-- she still half-expects the Headmistress or Father Aelfric to corner her after class after hearing Dimitri confess to their sexual activity. 

Her phone dings again. Edelgard can't imagine who's texting her now-- maybe Hubert? He was a night owl, but he usually didn't message her so late on a night where she had class the next morning. She picks up her phone and opens the message.

**Dimitri:** goodnight

What-- why had he sent her a goodnight text? Even as fuck-buddies, Dimitri is hopelessly sentimental. Not that it bothers her. She suspects that that's just how he is. Doubt lingers in the back of her mind as she tries not to consider what the implications of him becoming overly attached to her would mean. Its fine. It would work out, she thinks with a yawn. 

She drags herself to bed, exhausted from the night she's had. It isn't like her to wave away concerns with only optimism, but she's too tired to preemptively plan what to do if they start to catch feelings for each other. Wait-- each other? When had she started to consider the possibility that she could start liking him? Not that it matters, she thinks as she falls asleep. That wasn't ever going to happen.

**Author's Note:**

> Update 11/16/20: Thank you for reading. Initially, I had planned for this to be the first of many emotional climaxes throughout the fic, but I have decided to discontinue writing this fic for a variety of reasons (the main two being firstly, a lack of desire and enthusiasm towards writing more, and secondly, how I see their characters differently now in such a way that I believe I would have trouble maintaining consistent characterization from earlier parts of the fic). 
> 
> I am so grateful for all the support I've gotten for this fic, and am still really glad that I wrote and posted it. I feel bad for prematurely ending a fic that I love so much, but I do believe that it is for the best. I do take comfort that I was able to write an emotional climax that resolved some (though not all) of the emotional conflict between them. Hopefully this feels like a satisfying enough end and not a cliffhanger. If I ever decide to come back to this, it will likely be with separate fics set in the same universe. Thank you again for reading.


End file.
